Rebirth
by BananaAcidRepublic
Summary: Sometimes, in a cruel world, people are given a second chance.
1. Chapter 1: Beginning

Rising.

Rising.

Rising.

That was the first thing Kaneki felt, surrounded by water. Or, what he presumed to be water, but it felt thicker. Infinitely thicker.

And dark. Oh so, so dark.

Kaneki couldn't move at first. He was in the mid-way point between consciousness and oblivion, his awareness waking up before his body, causing momentary panic that made Kaneki think he was dying.

 _dying_

Was.

Was he dead?

Was this what hell felt like? Not hellfire and damnation, but eternal purgatory, forever alone with your thoughts? Those dark, horrible thoughts swirling inside every man's mind. Anger, love, sadness, hatred, fear, and regret.

Kaneki had a lot of the latter to fill an eternity with. At least he wouldn't be bored.

It felt like an eternity before he could even open his eyes. The darkness wasn't just in his mind either - it surrounded him. There was no definable scenery around him, only empty, endless darkness. Occasionally, he'd feel something close to him breeze by like a train, but aside from that there was nothing here.

Nothing at all.

Despite this, he continued to rise.

And rise.

And rise.

Rising.

Rising.

Why was he rising?

Where was he rising too?

And most importantly-

Why did this place feel so homely?

Why did it feel so

so

so motherly?

 _(like a womb)_

 _womb yes_

 _birth_

 _was this what birth felt like?_

Yes, it must have - this is what birth felt like. He felt himself ever rising to the surface in the dark endless abyss. He looked up, and he saw -

He coiled back. The light, the light was too bright

 _too fucking bright_

 _why was it so bright?_

 _BRIGHT_

* * *

Breathe.

Breathe you idiot.

Fucking breathe.

Kaneki breathed newfound air - fresh, fresh air. They filled his lungs. As they entered he felt empty - empty of everything. Empty of air, empty of blood, empty of life. Now, as the air sustained his bodily functions, he began to feel a little lively again.

But only a little.

The first thing that hit him was the cold. Kaneki had experienced the cold before. Tokyo wasn't exactly California or Texas in climate, but he had never felt so cold and abandoned before. Like he had been ejected from the world he knew into some foreign landscape, with no one to depend on, without a single friendly face.

A running theme, he thought.

He felt sludge of some sort on him, but it was quickly evaporating. Like the measly temperature of this place was enough to make it reach its boiling point.

His body was still mostly asleep, but at least he could see.

Although, what he saw wasn't exactly relaxing.

Darkness.

Of course it had to be fucking darkness. Although, not as dark as the the womb he came from.

But there was more - buildings. Well, 'buildings' was a little too nice, as they implied something complete or whole. These were anything but. Their steel (?) skeletons jutted out in the darkness, strewn across the landscape, crushing dozens of tinier living spaces. Many roads had been crushed by the falling buildings, and what few weren't had cracked and broken up long ago. The only thing that resembled a completed structure was what looked like a bullet train, but even it seemed older - like something out of a picture of early 1900s New York City.

Wherever he was, he wasn't in Tokyo anymore.

Not by a fucking long shot.

Oh good, yes, he could feel his legs again, even though they felt like noodles.

Kaneki forced himself to his feet. He felt a sense of unease - similar to how a newborn deer, despite knowing from birth how to walk, was unsure of itself.

He turned around ever so slowly to look back at the closest thing he had to a mother in almost a decade. It was darker than dark. This darkness was the complete inverse of light - like it was no longer just the absence of light, but the absence of the possibility of light. It probably wasn't even a pond of darkness, but a void. A liquid void from which nothing and everything came from.

He turned and looked around. He was near a road.

But a road to where?

Kaneki's eye trailed the winding, broken road to see a small vault door. Despite having two long thick blades pierce his eyes mear moments ago (in Kaneki's view, anyway) he could see with the same vision he had always had.

He had never begged for his eyes to be bad more in his life than at this moment, because he was scarily sure that he saw claw marks covering the vault door.

Large, thick claw marks the size of his body.

Kaneki felt the hairs on his body stand on end.

Wherever he was, he needed to get out. He couldn't stay down in this...underground city? Vault? Something out of a post apocalyptic novel, or a failed utopia? He didn't know - all he knew was, is that something was here, and it would give the ghouls of the 24th ward a run for their money.

But first, he needed to find some clothing. Kaneki _really_ didn't want his nether regions to be the first introduction to any potential survivors down here.

* * *

Wandering

Wandering

Wandering

How long had it been since he started wandering?

Minutes?

Hours?

Days?

 _YEARS?_

Kaneki couldn't have kept track. He just wandered. He wandered a long time in this labyrinth of broken buildings, smashed and crumbled against one another. Some looked like residential buildings, others business, others service. He kept looking for a exit, but nothing. Nothing but destroyed ruins, all scarred with the remains of human occupation.

During his travel down here, he saw what looked like a school. For children, no doubt. He looked through the abandoned hallways, coming and going from individual classrooms. Desks and chairs strewn across the place, some piled in front of classrooms and windows to prevent some unknown beast from crashing in, bullet cases and broken, rusted weaponry laying around every corner. Some rooms had signs made from cheap plastic and paper with signs like:

"Love your Neighbor!" "Fanus _are_ people too!" "How many cookies?"

He saw a flag on the wall, fully green and covered in various axes.

Then the smell came.

That god awful smell.

Kaneki knew what it was, but he hoped to whatever God that existed that it wasn't what he thought it was.

The door was locked. That set off alarm bells in Kaneki's mind - it wasn't the monsters, most likely.

Who else could have done it then?

Actually, don't answer that question. The answer makes it worse.

Kaneki forced the door open. His condition had improved over the past couple of days, even if he remain somewhat hungry.

He forced it open.

Splatters. Dark, dried splatters all over the wall. Dozens of small body bags, and an adult with a pistol in their hand.

The adult didn't take their own life - there was simply not enough ammunition.

* * *

Sleep was the worst part of it all. Not out of it being difficult, he had learned to sleep in unusual places while on his journey to destroy Aogiri tree. No, what made it hard was the deafening silence and loneliness.

And loneliness leads to contemplation.

Contemplation leads to regret.

Kaneki knew that regret was the thing he needed least at this moment - if he did that, he would be fucking dead. He would breakdown, and he knew it. There was only so much he could take before his entire mind shut down on itself. He would see all his friend's - Touka, Hinami, Koma, Nishiki, Irimi, Yomo, all of them.

 _hide_

He would see their faces gouged out by the CCG, their bodies, limplessly swaying back and forth in the back of some transportation truck to be used and harvested by as weapons. That's all they were, weapons.

But he couldn't think of that. He couldn't do that - he couldn't become what he was before. Doing something stupid wouldn't help anyone, and cause unjustified harm on innocent people.

 _weakling_

 _(that's all you are)_

He pushed those thoughts out.

But they always seemed to slip back in

 _weakling_

 _stop rejecting us_

 _ME_

Kaneki would countdown from 1000 by 7.

* * *

Kaneki found the ladder while searching for clothing.

He was tired of feeling air in a place air shouldn't be allowed to freely pass when he found the ladder to the surface. It was small, it could probably barely fit him, but damnit if he wasn't going to try.

It was in that long crawl to the surface that he learned how long he had gone without sunlight. The cover at the top shined small bright spots of light, most likely the sun setting, but even this tiny sliver of light was enough to burn his eyes to make them water. God, he was really wishing he found some clothing right about now, specifically pants and sunglasses - then he might have avoided this fucking bullsh -

Reached.

Stretching.

Touch.

Lift.

Screaming.

* * *

Walking.

Walking.

Walking.

More walking.

More destroyed buildings.

More broken roads.

At least this time there were monsters, at least.

It took time for him to get used to the bright light. For the first couple hours, he felt totally blinded by it. He had to keep his hand in front of his face at all time, lest his eyes be fried to bits. He had to look at the ground for the first day, before his eyes could get used to it. He spent, what, the past couple days underground? Maybe a week? Two? Who really knew, what few clocks he found underground were crushed.

So he wandered in one direction for a while, staring at the (somewhat) more intact road.

Kaneki slept in a dilapidated building, praying that it wouldn't crush him under it. His body had already performed one miracle of regeneration, he wasn't willing to test it again. Rinkaku's could perform miracles of that feat maybe once or twice, so it was best not to gamble.

The next morning, his eyes adjusted much better. The buildings up here were more intact, yes, but still destroyed. But this was different. It was almost like they were destroyed by something, and not just by general decay.

Then he saw the demon.

The smell was the first thing he noticed. It smelled

unearthly

like a combination of death and decay

mixed together with

human flesh?

 _flesh_

 _(so hungry)_

 _yes kaneki eat_

 _aren't you hungry?_

 _Yes I'm hungry, Yes fuck yes I'm starving - famished even._

 _eat_

 _(eat them alive)_

 _feed_

Kaneki picked up the pace, running across multiple corners, feeling the hunger within him rise up. God, he just really wanted it. He could imagine the taste of it - each person he ate before had a distinct taste, something that made it unique in its own little way. Sometimes they'd taste sweeter, sometimes they'd taste more bitter, others more meaty and good god his mouth was watering at the pure thought of pressing his teeth into the tender flesh of some corpse yes yes it was a corpse no doubt, what else could explain the stench of death? He wouldn't be killing another person, he'd just eat the corpse God it had been so long it felt like two fucking months at this point, and for all he knew it _was_ two months come on come on come on so hungry let me feed -

Kaneki turned the corner.

The beast whose skin was darker than dark stared him in the eye.

Bone marrow across its back.

Red eyes.

Half destroyed human corpse in its mouth

fresh blood on the ground and

 _(that fucker stole your kill)_

 _(TOOK it)_

 _(rip it apart)_

 _(rip it apart like you ripped apart Jason)_

Drool still dripped from Kaneki's mouth - it was fine that some monster took part, as long as he didn't mind sharing -

 _crack_

 _ **right?**_

* * *

It had been two years since Vajo graduated from the Beacon Huntsman academy, and in those two years he realized that half the shit they taught you in school didn't matter much, even in the academies. The only thing you had to rely on were your instincts and abilities in this world.

And friends. Friends were also good, especially if you didn't have the former.

Him and Smo, a former teammate from Beacon, were on a simple mission to take care of a Grimm infestation somewhere near a farming village out of the ways - they have been paid half the money upfront, and promised the second half on completion. The village lost their hunter on the same mission, so they hired two hunters just to be safe.

"For a farming village, they sure do have a bunch of money," Smo commented, grinning as she counted the money.

"Probably pulled their money together - desperation and all that."

"Heh, maybe. Maybe they're running a goldmine - you know the Council usually does that, running secret mining towns outside the walls and undercharging huntsman 'cause they think it's a small priority."

"If you think that's undercharging, you've been spending too much time hanging around Atlas."

"Well, you know what I mean - by the standards of a farming village it's too damn high. It's like what Tulip used to say about farmers: they're always trying to over or undercharge you, mostly cause they're so stupid - did I ever tell you that Atlas mostly relies on genetically grown meat? I think I did, possibly and -"

While he tuned her out during her ramble sessions, he thought about that name - _Tulip_. It had been, shit, a year since she died? Year and a half? God, it was so recent, so fresh. He remembered the funeral well. The casket covered in beautiful (what else?) Tulips, people crying over her, her mother having to be pried away from the body.

Well, casket rather. Her body had been ripped apart by a Nevermore, so they had to have a closed casket funeral.

Vaja wondered if maybe he'll have a closed casket funeral.

Vaja took his binoculars and looked through the destroyed ruins of Mountain Glenn - it had been a beautiful city at one point, but nature and the Grimm took it over. He heard the horror stories from the survivors. Not everyone got out in the first wave of attacks, many trapped above and underground. Not all the children got out of the school. He hoped those poor bastards got out fa-

 _What the hell?_

 _Is._

 _Is that a kid?_

Smo looked at this.

She stopped her ramblings, took the binoculars, and stared through them at the kid.

"Holy shit, is - is he a survivor? And - and why is he naked?"

"I don't know, but we got-"

"Anddddd he's staring a Grimm down."

"What?!"

Vaja swiped them and looked back down, seeing the kid taking an attacking position against the Ursa triple his size. The Ursa had - God good, a corpse in its mouth. It spat it out, probably landing with a giant thud on the ground and _God Vaja you never got used to this did you?_

The Ursa began to charge, raising its claws into the air and -

* * *

It felt so good for Kaneki's kagune to finally have some breathing room. It wasn't healthy to keep it in for so long like this, and he needed practice as well as the food.

A tendril shot out of his back piercing the bone mask of the creature, snapping and cracking into a thousand tiny pieces. The creature reeled, screaming in agony as its major source of defense had been smashed to a thousand pieces.

It was Kaneki's turn.

He charged, jumping into the air, and within a split second he was right behind the screaming, bear like creature. He fused his tendrils together, forcing them into one giant appendage, and stabbed them into the creatures back, which was also covered in bone. And, just like its bone mask, it smashed into a thousand pieces, and it pierced through the whole thing.

He lifted it into the air, completely in its shadow. His tendrils began to fizzle apart, becoming four again, and as this happened the body stretched and morphed until the flesh of the thing began to tear and rip and _oh god yes it didn't digest yet yes_

A half eaten corpse fell from the body and

 _still fresh yes yes fresh fresh yes_

Kaneki dropped to his knees and began eating.

* * *

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Did. Did you just see what I saw?"

"Yes."

"I. I think I'm gonna throw up."

"Fuck the money man, I'm not going up against _that_. Is it even human Vaja? Is this a new Grimm species or some shit?"

"We gotta tell Ozpin."

"We _have_ to tell Ozpin, Jesus Christ."


	2. Chapter 2

Ozpin sipped on his coffee as he heard the two huntsmen deliver their stories. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't entertain such tall-tales - 'human Grimm', how cute - but the way they talked, the inflections in their voice, the occasional shiver and shaking of the hand when they recounted the horrid details, made him much more accepting towards the idea.

Ozpin opened a drawer and began rummaging around for his recorder. He placed it onto the table, inserted a new tape inside, and pressed the red button on the side.

"Describe it to me again, from the top."

He needed to this for posterity. You know, in case this became a problem for future generations. He had been around long enough to know that even the smallest details become entangled in the great narrative of history - why not make things a little easier on future historians?

"Y-Yes, me and Vaja were out doing a job - you know how the farmers are, they, um, wanted us to kill some Grimm that were threatening their village and, um, well, their huntsman died and - and -"

"We were searching the area, and, well, and we found this kid in Mountain Glenn."

"You are sure it was Mountain Glenn?" replied Ozpin, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Y-Yes, I'm sure of that," confirmed Vaja. He was trying to not shiver and quack under the pressure, but still, this was something different. It sounded like one of his boyhood stories that they'd all tell to fuck with each other, but this. This is something entirely different from anything else he'd ever encountered. Even in this cruel, cruel world, there were still certain rules regulating reality.

"What about the street? Any definable landmarks? Specific building locations would be acceptable as well - I just need information."

Smo interjected. She hadn't been handling this shit well. She repeatedly asked to sleep with Vaja during the journey back to Vale, something that she felt embarrassed by but knew she wouldn't sleep without another human beside her. Her embarrassment was only offset by Vaja's uncomfortable acceptance of the circumstances.

"I-I believe i-it was near the, um, um, um," she stammered out, barely processing her own thoughts before blurting them out.

"A factory, I believe," Vaja said, attempting to cover for Smo.

"Are you sure?"

Smo and Vaja nodded. Even with the small buzzing of the ceiling fan, the sound of Smo's teeth chattering were enough to set Vaja on edge. Vaja wasn't used to this - he wasn't used to any of this, in fact, but especially something like Smo being uncomfortable. He promised himself he'd give her a hug the moment Ozpin was out of sight.

"And what of its abilities?"

"Well, it seemed to have some sort of flesh manipulation ability - it had these large, black and red tendrils forming from its back. It seemed very natural too, as if it had a _lot_ of practice. That's the only real thing I can gather, we booked it after he started eating the -"

"Understandable. Physical description?"

"White hair, very pale looking. Couldn't tell from afar, but I _think_ part of its eye was red. Grimm like, but only one side. I think, anyway - it's possible my mind was playing tricks on me."

"I see. Describe to me its, well, _unusual_ feeding patterns, for the record."

"It wasn't usual Grimm, I can tell you that much. It didn't feed like Grimm do - it seemed to relish in it, as if it…" Vaja trailed off.

"As if what?"

"As if it was hungry. Like a person."

Silence.

Ozpin leaned forward in his chair, away from the usual leaned back posture he always had.

"Are you absolutely - _completely and absolutely_ sure that's what you saw?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"I see," he flatly responded, leaning back again into his chair.

"W-W-W-What are y-you gonna d-do a-a-a-a-a-"

"I will send in scouts to search the area for the creature and its potential birthing spot. Aside from that, that will be left up to the Security Council. Now," he announced, standing up and walking towards the two huntsmen, "how about some coffee?"

* * *

" _It wasn't usual Grimm, I can tell you that much. It didn't feed like Grimm do - it seemed to relish in it, as if it...as if it was hungry. Like a person."_

Ozpin paused the recorder, rewound it, and played it again. Those words were seered into his mind, the implications digging themselves into the very folds of his mind and body.

The description matched _her_. White hair, red eyes, seeming control over their body - all of it _seemed_ to match. But something just didn't sit right - the pieces of the puzzle connected a little _too_ perfectly. As if it the game was made with a specific conclusion in mind.

Was it?

Ozpin knew it wasn't out of the question that another creature like Salem could come into existence - unlikely, but not impossible. He had made preparations in case of such a possibility. He destroyed thousands of birthing pits, hunted dozens of wizards around the world, destroyed ancient Grimm creatures - all in an attempt to prevent something like _her_ to form again.

Apparently, he had failed.

Like usual.

But had he? _Had he truly?_

He was operating under the assumption that, if two Grimm-like humans (or was it human-like Grimm?) came into existence, they would cooperate.

 _But would they?_

 _Would they really?_

Even in this incredibly fractured world, where humanity was barely hanging by a thread compared to the great threat of the Grimm, war still broke out. Hell, The Great War occured during a time of near total Grimm domination.

Even in their darkest hour, our species found new and horrible ways to destroy each other.

Would the Grimm be any different?

Ozpin sat back, quietly laughing at the thought - maybe the Grimm's biggest enemy were themselves.

* * *

Wandering.

Wandering.

Wandering.

Oh look

 _more fucking wandering_

Kaneki wouldn't have minded the wandering if he had _something_ to read, but there was nothing out here other than a couple of old battered road signs.

He was really hoping that this road lead to somewhere - _anywhere_. God, he almost missed the sight of the Tokyo skyline, and the masses of wandering, aimless people in the streets. At least there he knew that there was someone out there in that endless concrete jungle.

Here, he felt well and truly alone.

Well, aside from the monsters.

Kaneki wasn't sure what they were or what they did exactly. Their skin was black, and covered in large sections of thick, white bone covering their face and chest. But the consistent theme among all of them were their constant dislike of him.

No, dislike wasn't the right word.

They were _afraid_ of him.

Whenever he entered their line of sight, they scurried away like ship-rats. When in a corner, they seemed to close themselves off, and try and dig into the ground. When that didn't work, they just shaked and shivered until Kaneki was out of their sight.

Was this a normal thing in this world?

Kaneki had already known that this wasn't Tokyo anymore - or Earth. The world was too alien, its creatures too unnatural and too 'out there' to be from his planet. At first, Kaneki thought this was a hallucination - a near death experience, with more emphasis on the 'death' part rather than 'near'.

But, at least from what little he knew, near death experiences don't last two weeks.

Then he thought he had a mental breakdown, and all of this was a psychosis brought on by stress and physical pain. He created a fantasy world in order to survive the cruelty of the real one - but even that had problems. Why would Arima - the Death God of the CCG - let him live, especially considering Kaneki's (apparent) mental break from reality. Deranged lunatics don't make good sources of info, even in the CCG.

So.

What the fuck was this?

Where the fuck was this?

How the fuck did he _get here?_

 _And why?_

On the bright side, he at least had some clothes.

At least from the waist down, thank God.

* * *

There were three basic rules of Team RWBY : (1) Don't forget your tests, (2) don't poke fun of Weiss' bitchy behavior (this was often ignored), and (3): _Don't forget your fucking coffee._

Ruby had forgotten first and third.

She just ignored the second.

Today was a test on the Great Revolutionary Period - a time of great democratic upheaval across the world, from the echelons of the collectivist Mantel to the lower classes of Vale, all clamoring for basic representation in their governments - and Ruby had completely forgotten the test.

Along with her coffee.

Before coming to Beacon, Yang and her father would have never considered letting her have a sip of coffee, let alone multiple cups a day.

But that was middle and high school. This was college. Basic health and personal management were secondary to social life and grades.

Although, for Ruby, the former wasn't that existent even with the coffee. Or the latter for that matter.

She was barely functioning today - she had been studying for her survival test, her weaponry class, cleaned her Crescent Rose, and was preparing for a future essay on the topic of Dust crystals and their relations to cloth design (if you consider "preparation" to be "colorful but citation-less notes") - and she left her coffee in her room on the counter in her room and it was halfway across campus and _craaaaaapppppppppppppppp killllllllllll meeeeeeeee nowwwwwwwwwwwww._

Professor Oobleck had given them five minutes to review - Blake was silently reviewing her note cards and Weiss was sitting in her desk, completely still, her eyes closed. Of course she was, Ruby thought, she was Weiss - she knew everything. Yang was chewing on her morning bacon - she was also not studying, but that was because she resigned herself to indifference on such academic matters.

Ruby was furiously studying her notes - a part of her just wanted to give up, but she knew that would be bad. She couldn't just give up - but sleep was alluring. Part of her wanted to smashed her head into the wooden desk as hard as possible, just to get blood pumping and keep her from falling asleep, but that would hurt. It would hurt _alot. S_ he'd rather not have to be out of commission.

Again.

 _God_ she prayed for some coffee.

* * *

 _God_ he prayed for some coffee.

Even shitty, rotten beans would have done for Kaneki. Better than nothing.

He drank from the cool fresh water stream near the road. Despite missing the taste of delicious coffee, he couldn't deny the coolness he felt from the river water flowing down his throat.

After drinking from the stream, he laid down on the cool grass. The trees occasionally swayed back and forth. A bird chirped here and there, but far, far in the distance.

Kaneki, for the first time in a long time, felt at peace.

But only slightly.

The sun was starting to set, the twinkles of light fading into darkness, and, in its place, the -

 _What._

 _What the fuck._

 _Is. Is that the moon?_

Why.

 _Why is the moon shattered?_

It was in that moment that Kaneki realized he wasn't in Tokyo anymore. It was in that moment that any hypothesis of psychosis or hallucination or any other logical explanation was just as shattered as that fucking moon.

Kanek felt his body temperature fall - the closest thing he could relate it too was getting into a shower after an extremely cold day. Your body couldn't keep up with the external temperature around you, and so it feels so cold and so hot at the same time. That was what Kaneki felt in that exact moment.

The next thing he felt was a crushing sensation of isolation.

He was gone from everyone he knew and loved.

Gone from not only them, but from the world he was born and grown in.

Gone.

They were as real as the characters in a Sen Takatsuki novel.

It was in that moment he realized how completely and utterly alone he was.

And in that moment,

he began to cry.


	3. Chapter 3

Charlie 'Charcoal' Taylor hadn't been having a very good day.

Firstly, his stash - his six month supply of pure, clean white Dust, the shit that got you so fucked up it'd make cocaine look like child's play in compairson- had been jacked by that top hat wearing fuck. Of course, maybe he shouldn't have even hidden it under his seat in the shittest part of Vale, but still, cut the guy a break why don't you?

Worst part is, it's rumored it ain't even a drug thing - something that Charlie was ecstatic to learn about at first, before learning it was something _big_.

Something so big it would need every single ounce of Dust in the whole goddamn region.

Fuck. So much for his stash.

Secondly, his dealer got busted, and for something completely and utterly unrelated to Dust. The fucker had been using Merlot Industries - which, had basically imploded when Mountain Glenn went to shit - as a shell company to funnel money to some Tribes in Mistrals. Apparently he had been connected to the Raiders, and those Raiders connected to some powerful people on the international stage.

Now that his dealer - who supplied every junkie in the city - was gone, he was panicking. God, he knew what Dust withdrawal felt like. He remember his mother's words - _Don't get hooked on Dust, boy, or I'll beat it out of you_.

That sounded pretty good as of right now.

Fuck.

FUCK.

He smashed his head against the steering wheel of the car, a loud _honk honk_ emanating from the horn. He didn't even know where he was driving off to - he just was driving. He'd be okay outside the main city for awhile, up until he reached the end of the blue dome. At least, he hoped.

 _You could just steal some._

Yeah right. He didn't have anything needed for that. No tools to actually crush it, no guns to rob a place with, and no _actual_ places to steal from.

Of course, that was assuming he could have the balls to pull a gun out on someone. He was a coward at heart, and he knew it. The thought of owning a gun slightly terrified him, let alone loading it and putting it against someone's head.

But he also knew the shivers.

The fucking shivers man.

First came the shivers.

Then the hallucinations.

Then the voices.

Then the implosion.

No one comes back out after the implosion phase man. No one comes back unchanged.

Charlie wasn't gonna fucking implode, oh _no he fucking wasn't._

But, if he wasn't gonna rob some poor schmuck before Roman (assuming there's any Dust left in the city), where else was he gonna get it?

Charlie kept thinking.

And thinking.

And think - _oh SHIT._

He served his car to the right, barely missing the barely clothed kid in the road. He fell into a ditch, hitting the slope, colliding with a loud thud. His head was playing bobble head with the steering wheel for a good three seconds before he stopped moving around like a rag doll. Good thing he was wearing a seat belt, or he'd go from Mister Charlie to Mister Red Skid Mark in no time flat.

His head was ringing like a motherfucker, he was pretty sure his foot was crushed. He looked down, and saw both of his legs having gone straight through. He must have instinctively activated his aura. He was going 90 MPH and didn't have time to stop, so when he rammed into the hill his feel went straight on through. It would heal, hopefully.

Charlie tried turning his body to the right, but _oh fuck that hurt_ _JESUS CHRIST that fucking hurt._ He stopped trying to move, and began reaching for his phone.

The screen was cracked, with chips and circuitry dangling out of the bottom half.

Fuck.

"Hey...kid. Kid. Please….Please help."

God, his voice sounded so hoarse - sharpnel better not have destroyed his voice box or some shit. He could live without a leg, but a voice? Fate worse than death - the _I have no voice and I must scream_ type shit in horror movies.

"I will."

If his body hadn't felt so fucking stiff and broken, he would have yelped at that sudden cold, calculated voice.

Charlie angled his eyes towards the white haired kid - white hair? What the hell was an Atlas boy doing out in Vale, let alone this far outside the main city. And why the hell was he shirtless - unless there was a massive orgy out here, there'd be no reason for him to _not_ have one.

Charlie stared into the kid's eyes.

They were silvery. And cold. Oh so cold. Staring into those round orbs felt like being locked up in a goddamn freezer. He was shivering at the thought, although that may have done more to do with the idea of this fucking psycho - a random nobody in the middle of nowhere, somewhere where nobody could hear you scream - being the one who he placed his chances of living on.

"I will help you, but you must agree to help me first."

Oh this motherfucker - _this fucking fucker. This no good rotten sack of fucking sh-_

"F-Fine, just get me the hell out of here!"

"Very well."

The kid stood up, got in front of the car, and placed his hands on the front of the car.

"Kid, I don't think you can just push it out -"

The car started to move upwards as the kid began pushing. It wasn't even a bit of mobility, either. It was _instant_.

When the kid stopped pushing, they were already in the road again.

On the left side.

"Um, kid?"

"Yes?"

"You know we're on the _left_ side right?"

"Yes. Is that wrong?"

"Um, yeah, it fu- I mean, yeah, yeah it is."

"Oh, sorry."

 _What is this kid's fucking deal?_

He positioned the car back the way it was.

He walked to the left side door, and unlocked the door.

"Your seems to have gone through the floor - that shouldn't have been possible."

"I was going ninety miles an hour, I guess - I had no fucking time to slow down and, well, I guess I must have activated my aura and -"

"Aura?"

"Yeah, aura - you know, the magic shit?"

"Magic?"

"Well, it's not _really_ magic - not in the traditional sense I mean, but, like…" He trailed off.

The kid continued to stare him down coldly.

"Do. Do you honestly not know what aura is?"

"No."

 _Jesus fuck kid, how sheltered were you?_

"Whatever, just get me out of this fucking thing!"

The kid grabbed both of Charlie's legs firmly.

"Hold on."

Charlie didn't like the sound of that.

He didn't like the sound of that at _all._

"On the count of three, I will rip your legs out of the floor."

 _Wait wh-_

"One."

 _Is he fucking serious?_

"Two."

"Listen kid may-"

"Three."

Charlie's screams reached for miles and miles afterwards.

* * *

Charlie woke up in the Vale Medical Center. How he got there, he had no clue, but the nurse apparently told him that he was dropped off near a fire department near the outskirts of the city, along with his (almost) totaled car. Witnesses said some naked kid dropped him off along with the car, and just started running.

No one chased after him.

Part of Charlie knew he should have been thankful that the kid didn't jack his shit, but he wasn't. That bastard crashed his car and didn't even give him the common decency of an insurance card or anything.

 _Fuck._

* * *

Charlie walked up the stairs to his apartment. He had been discharged a couple hours ago, and he had driven his verging on collapse car all the way back home.

He was hoping that his insurance company would cover the damages.

(They wouldn't.)

He reached his apartment number - _Room 403_.

He fumbled around for the key card, inserted it inside, and saw -

That.

That fucker.

 _That fucker._

"Hello, Charlie."

 _That fucking fucker._

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

The white haired kid flashed a smile - a devilish grin that would give Roman a run for his money.

"Well, you still owe me that promise, no?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey Rubes!" exclaimed Yang, her yellow hair dangling back and forth, still warm from the blow dryer she used after getting out of the shower. "How ya doing?"

" _Ughhh._ "

"Think you bombed that test?"

" _Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_."

"Mmmm."

Yang sat near her half sister, gently patting her head. She looked out the window - the half moon was fully shining in the fresh summer night. A part of her remembered the nights her and Ruby would just sit in the fields of their home and just look up at the sky, describing the beautiful shapes of the shattered moon.

Ah, the good old days.

A part of her heart ached.

"Come on Rubes, get up!"

"I don't wannnaaaa!"

"Come on Ruby, come on - we'll go out somewhere to eat! Your favorite place!"

"Nooooo I wanna sit here and die!"

"You know I'll drag you out of bed regardless of if you want to or not."

Ruby sighed and sat up, still in her school uniform. The moment they got home from classes, Ruby just sat in her bed, sighing and occasionally pouting.

"Come on, you'll love it - it's Cookie Corral," Yang said, devilishly smiling.

"I don't have much choice in the matter, do I?"

"Nope! Now get out of those things, and let's go - Weiss and Blake will be there soon!."

"How did you convince them to go?"

"Oh, I lied and said it was a place where cute boys go."

"Yang!"

"What, it has, like, two cute boys there, so it's _technically_ true."

Ruby pouted. But still, some cookies and ice cream would cheer her up.

Hopefully.

She began undressing.

* * *

Charlie continued to look at the white haired bastard.

Did. Did this fucker ruffle through his wallet, all just to find out where he lived?

No. No fucking way.

Charlie was so fucking furious he didn't even realize how much he was shaking.

"Calm down, I'm not going to kill you. Unless you give me a reason to."

Charlie then became aware of his shaking.

"What. What the _fuck_ do you want from me? Money? Drugs - look man, I don't have any, that fucker Roman took it all from me -"

"I don't want anything like that. Come on in, you look like you saw a ghost," he replied back, the first time he seemed to laugh.

God, that laugh was colder than his mother's closet in winter.

He took a deep breathe, gathering what little courage he had, and walked on in.

* * *

Despite how small the apartment was, Kaneki felt at home in it all. Maybe it just reminded him of his old place in Tokyo, just minus the books. And a lot less organized. Like, if here were being completely honest, it was a fucking pigsty. Clothes strewn everywhere, empty cups and plates scattered all over the table and kitchen, and more unusual stains than he could even count. He was sure there wasn't a single room in the apartment that _didn't_ have a rat or disgusting pest living in it.

But still, he couldn't help but be reminded of his apartment, even if it was only because of the concept itself and not the execution.

God, he missed his old apartment - he missed Tokyo in general.

But he couldn't think that. Not now. Not now, not ever.

"Hey, um, kid?" Charlie asked, a bit nervous. Despite having a complete stranger in his home (one that totalled his car and got him in the hospital too), he seemed to be taking things really well, all things considered.

"Yes?"

"Can you, um, put on a shirt?"

Kaneki would have blushed, but he was so used to not having one on, he barely noticed it himself.

"I don't have one."

"I'll give you one, just, you know."

Charlie was blushing.

"Alright."

Kaneki picked up a random T-Shirt off the ground, putting it on.

"Better?"

"Slightly."

"What's your name?"

"Kaneki. Come, let's sit down."

Kaneki walked over to the couch, sitting down.

Charlie accompanied him on the other side.

Then silence.

Uncomfortable, awkward silence.

As the two men stared awkwardly at each other, Kaneki finally realized how strange looking this guy was - first off, this guy's entire color scheme looked like something out of Hot Topic. Fully black, with occasional blotches of white here and there, but almost fully black. His hair, well, that was understandable - he had black hair before didn't he? - but his eyes?

There was something in his eyes, as well - like a demon had taken possession of a previous rational, sane person.

If what he said before was any indication, he was possessed by a demon of a very human inclination.

That would complicate matters, if this guy was his only life-line between this world and himself.

But that would be later - now, he needed to actually, well, _talk_ to the guy.

"So, what do you need?"

That was easy.

"Well," Kaneki began, "I need some...information."

"Yeah, I can tell - mind if I ask a question before we begin this interrogation?"

Kaneki smirked.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Where are you from?"

 _Fuck._

"Why do you want to know?"

"I mean, you look like an Atlas boy - but, what would an Atlas boy do that far outside the city limits?

Kaneki leaned back into the couch, trying to think of how exactly to word _I'm from another dimension, you?_ in such a way that wouldn't make him look _absolutely_ off his rocker.

"I. I don't know."

"What? Shit," he snorted out, "how much Dust did you snort?"

"Dust?"

"God, do you have amnesia or something?"

 _Perfect._

"Possibly."

"Shit, really? Do you really not remember anything? I mean, even amnesiacs have memory of _some_ things - even the countries."

"It must be bad, then."

Charlie huffed.

"What the hell do you want from me then?"

"I want information."

"Why _me_ \- we got a library you know?"

"Yes, but sometimes it's better to have someone else explain it."

Charlie huffed louder.

"Fine, I'll explain it, and then you get the fuck out of my house."

"Understandable - I promise to pay you back for the car, when I make enough money."

"Sure, whatever. Just ask and get out."

"Thank you - firstly, where am I?"

"Vale."

"What is Aura?"

"Basically, think of it as, like, hmm. Think of it as a force-field around your body. It can heal you too. Kinda like magic, I guess."

"Like magic. Alright. Now, what about those...black things."

"Black things?"

"The things outside the city."

"Oh, the Grimm?"

"Yes, those things."

"Ah, well, they're these giant, monster-like demons that constantly attack humans. You kill them, they fade away, as if there weren't even there to begin with. They don't need to eat humans, but they feed off our negative emotions - or, at least massive negative emotions. How far out of the city were you?"

"I." _Think dumbass._ "I wasn't too far out - I was near the blue dome."

"Ah, nevermind then. Just found it strange that you're, well, still alive," he said, slightly chuckling.

"Where could I get a job?"

"Do I look like a fucking unemployment center? Come on, you should have Vale citizenship - hopefully, at least."

"Where's the library?"

"It's on King Daff Avenue - couldn't miss it if you tried."

Kaneki leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes. Everything seemed to be going good, but where would he go the moment he left the apartment?

Maybe the city had a homeless shelter?

Fuck.

"I. I think most of my answers have been answered. Thank you, Mr. Taylor, but I will be taking my leave."

* * *

 _God this kid's fucking weird._

Of course, Charlie didn't buy the amnesia bullshit - I mean, really, who would?

But he didn't press the issue. This kid was fucking strong, and he got the feeling it had nothing to do with aura. Shit, he could probably crush his neck with his bare hands.

 _Wait._

A gear, long forgotten by him, began turning inside his head. The machine began clicking into place, and a plan had formed in its place.

He had to contain the grin across his face.

"Wait, Kaneki!" he yelled back.

The kid stopped before exiting the already half open door.

"Listen, kid - do you, like, actually wanna pay off that debt to me?"

Kaneki turned around, an eyebrow raised.

"Well, if you do, I got a job offer for you - you don't mind getting your, um, _hands_ dirty, do you?"

"Depends on what you're asking."

Charlie could barely contain the grin.

"Look, kid, I'm in a bit of a bind right now - I…." he trailed off, trying to connect the nearly unconnectable lines of information in his mind together. "I had something very, _very_ important stolen from me."

"How important?"

"I'd. I'd rather not divulge that information, now. Look, the only thing you need to know is, is that it belonged to someone I deeply, _deeply_ care for. So, I'd appreciate it if you could just, like, help me on that front."

Kaneki seemed to pause, deeply considering the offer.

"Look, you don't _have_ to ( _but you should_ ), because, you owe me that, please. Please - look, I'll even let you crash at my place, but, just, please."

"I'll. I'll think about it."

"Look, Kaneki, please give me an answer - I don't know how long this guy will keep it -"

"I'll help you."

 _That was easy_.

"Uh, wow - I mean, great! Great, great. Let me, um, set up the couch - give me a moment? I usually don't, like, you know, get it out often."

 _Fucking sucker - look out Roman, I got me a fucking Atlas boy on my team._

Of course, he knew it probably wasn't the best idea to let a psycho let loose on a underground crime lord.

But really, how bad could this _really_ go?


	5. Chapter 5

Ruby trailed behind Yang, the blond confidently swaggering her way down the street.

Ruby couldn't help but sigh at the earlier events of the day - she knew she bombed that test, _she just knew it_. She felt like an utter and absolute failure. Like she didn't even deserve to be at Beacon. Of course, she knew she was lucky - who wouldn't consider themselves lucky? - but she felt undeserving. Why her and not, like, anyone else?

She pushed the thought out of her head - she didn't like it. She didn't like it at all.

"Ruby~! Keep up, we're _almost_ there!"

Ruby felt her heart start to flutter - cookies! And milk!

The thoughts of failure throughout the day were starting to fade away now, and the thoughts of sweet, crunchy dough stuffed inside her mouth were beating their way inside.

* * *

Weiss's patience was wearing mighty thin at this point.

Ruby and Yang were late.

And there was one - _one_ \- somewhat decent looking guy here, and he was probably a decade older than her.

Part of her just wanted to ditch this place, but the other part of her _really_ didn't want to, mostly because part of her really did want some cookies.

So, she waited.

And waited.

And waited and _oh god just hurry up already you nitwits._

"Blake, what time is it?"

Blake flicked her phone on, scrolling past the various messages.

"7:49."

 _Ughhhhhh._

 _If they aren't here by eight I'll ditch them - I got more important things to do._

 _(You don't.)_

The doorbell rang.

 _Oh thank God, they're here._

Weiss turned her head to see the duo.

 _Oh, it's just some Atlas ki-_

 _ATLAS?_

 _HERE?_

I mean, she _assumed_ that the kid was from Atlas, but, come on, how many Valians had white hair?

Was he here for the tournament? They weren't supposed to be here for another month, what the hell was a Atlas student doing here out so far?

Of course, he didn't really look like a Atlas student - he had a really old looking t-shirt, and his pants seemed very tattered. Plus, that fingernail color looked kinda weird, but, hey, she hung around Ruby alot of the time, so she was used to tacky fashion.

Maybe he was sightseeing?

"Hey, Blake?"

"What."

"Do you think that guy is from Atlas?"

"Checking out the competition?" commented Blake, sipping her latte and flipping through some mobile game on her scroll.

"Maybe."

"I thought you were more into that Neptune guy."

"Blake!" she half whispered, half screamed.

"What?"

"Don't just _say_ that!"

"Why?"

Weiss sighed, burying her head into her palm.

"Was it _that_ obvious?"

"I've seen street performers more subtle."

Weiss pouted, mostly to stop her face from turning flash red.

"You didn't answer the question, Blake."

"I don't know, he doesn't smell…." She trailed off, looking away from her phone, her face contorting. It was as if she was trying to pinpoint some far away, distinct aroma, long forgotten by the mind.

Forgotten or repressed?

Why would she repress it?

She had always prided herself on her strong memory, something about her being a cat Fanus, it came with the territory, but the thought of a smell - something as distinct and unnatural as this, no less - had been repressed by her was.

Was.

"Blake?"

"Huh?"

"You okay? You just sorta…. dozed off."

"Oh, sorry. I was just. Just thinking of something."

"Oh, alright - you sure that milk isn't going to your head?" Weiss commented, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah," Blake responded, a small smile creeping across her face. "Yeah, maybe it is."

"Anyway, think I should talk to him?"

"Not my business, but I think you'd look cute together-"

" _Shut up_!"

* * *

It had been too long.

It had been too damn long.

Kaneki placed the plastic, green card (called _Lien_ by Charlie) onto the counter of the cookie shop. He couldn't give a shit about the cookies - even when he was a human, the little treats weren't really his thing.

No.

There was one thing that he had his eyes on.

Everyone had their drug of choice.

For Charlie it was Dust.

In Japan, it was weed, meth, and every single combination of over the counter stuff that could and would be abused.

For Kaneki?

Coffee.

Coffee was his drug.

He always had an affinity for the substance - he was a college student, after all.

But being turned into a Ghoul expedited the addiction. Other than water, he couldn't drink a damn thing, other than blood. And, really, who wants to drink something that has the same cholesterol levels as butter?

So, coffee and water.

It wasn't hard to see which one became Kaneki's drink of choice.

So of course he asked Charlie for some money. It was only fair, of course. Tit for tat drug supply. The perfect deal, no?

Of course, Kaneki knew coffee couldn't kill you, unlike Dust, which, from what he gathered, was similar to cocaine.

But who was he to come in and judge this guy's life? Considering the red carpet he had pulled out for him, it was only fair to indulge him.

To a point.

He knew there was going to come a cliff, a cliff that only long time junkies come to when the going gets tough. And on that cliff, was going to be somebody important to Charlie - a friend, a family member, a lover, etc. - was going to be dangling off one side, and on the other, a bag of the purest, most ground up Dust in the world.

It wasn't hard to see what he'd let drop.

Was Kaneki gonna get that person dangling killed through his indifference?

Or worse, was he going to be the one dangling?

"Sir, your order?"

"Huh?" Kaneki blurted out, barely noticing that the cashier was handing him his coffee and change.

"Your order 8 yes?"

"Um, yes, yes ma'am. Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

He gathered his stuff and sat near the window. He pressed himself against the cold glass - cold, so cold. He was sure it was the fall season - maybe even winter. He wouldn't be opposed to that, it being winter. Of course, it would make his work with Charlie harder. Then again, when had _any_ job of his been easy, especially after his transformation?

He stared down at his coffee - condensation building around the top of the plastic container. The heat was beating through the styrofoam like nothing else - he was sure if the cup broke, he'd suffer third-degree burns.

He took a deep breathe in, and out.

This was it. Everything had been leading up to this point.

Now would make it all worth it.

Now, to just drink it-

"Hi!"

For a split second, Kaneki felt his entire life flash before his eyes.

The coffee tilted to the side, due to the sudden jerking of Kaneki from the unexpected feminine voice coming from directly to the side of him.

He could envision the mess on the floor - the brown substance spilling everywhere, filling every crack and crevice in the floor, steam emanating from the coffee and into the shop itself. Eventually a janitor would come out and start cleaning it, and all of his precious coffee - his precious, _precious_ coffee - ending up in a mop bucket.

The horror.

He grabbed the cup, holding it hard - so hard for a split second he was sure the cup would break and burn him. But it didn't, _thank god._

He was breathing heavily, almost having a heart attack at the near thought of having his fix destroyed right in front of him.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry - are you okay?"

Kaneki turned to face the voice.

Before him was a short, white haired girl, with light-blue colors. Her entire outfit consisted of (primarily) white, with black lining. Her jacket had a red interior, and she had a -

A.

A fucking _sword_?

 _Why do this seventeen year old have a fucking sword?_

 _What is WRONG with this world?_

"Yeah," he finally blurted out. "Yeah, I'm - I'm fine, just."

 _Say something moron!_

"Fine."

"Okay, I was just wondering - I didn't mean to -"

"No, no, no, it's fine, it's all fine. I just get jumpy like this, sometimes."

A short silence erupted between them.

"So, my name is Weiss - what's your name?"

 _Fuck, why is her name German?_

"Kaneki. My name is Ken Kaneki - although, my friends just call me Kaneki."

"Oh, that's….interesting. Are you from Atlas?"

 _Shit._

"No, sorry."

"Oh, sorry for assuming - you just had the white hair and-"

Kaneki laughed.

"Don't worry, I don't blame you - is your hair...natural?"

Weiss seemed to be perplexed at the question, as if he had just asked her if the sky was blue.

 _Although, at this point, that question might actually become reasonable._

"Uh, yeah - is yours?"

"No," he said, coldly.

She seemed caught off guard at the sudden shift in tone.

"Are you here for the Tournament?"

"Tournament?"

A part of Kaneki felt like she was trying her hardest not to drop her jaw.

She just _barely_ succeed.

"You _don't_ know about the Tournament?"

"No, sorry. I'm. I'm still new here."

"New where?"

Kaneki paused to think of a response.

"Everywhere I guess."

 _Ding-Ding._

"WE'RE HERE!"

* * *

Weiss wasn't sure whether to be angry at Yang and Ruby for barging in on her and Kaneki's conversation or to be happy that Yang and Ruby barged in on their conversation.

Because it was going _weird._

"Hi Weiss!" screamed Ruby, a smile plastered across her face, from ear to ear.

"Hello Ruby, Yang."

"Hi Weiss, who's the emo dude?" replied Yang, pointing at Kaneki.

 _Oh no._

"Kaneki, this is Ruby and Yang. Ruby and Yang, this is Kaneki - he's new here, so please go easy on h-"

"Hi Kaneki!" screamed Ruby, enthusiastically waving at Kaneki, which Kaneki awkwardly waved back.

"Weiss, I thought you were into Neptu-"

Weiss glared a thousand yard glare at Yang, making Yang, the one usually resilient to Weiss' bullshit, shrink away from finishing that sentence.

"Sheesh ice queen, just a joke."

"Yang," she said, pulling her aside as Ruby began harassing Kaneki with a million and one questions, "you pull me out of my precious work time, force me to sit in a cookie place with only Blake for company, lie to me about there being cute guys here, _and_ were thirty minutes -"

"Technically twenty-eight."

"Whatever, you still wasted my time!"

"You seemed to have found _a_ guy tho-"

" _Shut up or I will give your face frostbite."_

* * *

"Are you from Atlas?"

"No, I'm no-"

"Where are you from?"

"Vale, I think-"

"Are you participating in the tournament?"

"No, not re-"

"Do you even have a weapon?!"

"No, sorry."

The red headed girl pouted, being severely disappointed at this development in their relationship (?).

"Do _you_ have a weapon?"

"Oh yeah! I named it _Crescent Rose_ \- wanna see it?"

"Uh, how about next time - does _everyone_ carry around a weapon?"

"Uhh, no - only huntsmen."

"What's a huntsmen?"

"Man, are you _sure_ you're from Vale?"

"I was a bit sheltered by my mother."

"Ah, okay then - mothers can be like that sometimes."

Something in that voice felt more grounded in speculation and less in concrete experiences.

"Well, a huntsmen goes out and fights Grimm, and we protect people from the bad guys -"

While the girl was rambling, Kaneki couldn't help but be reminded of another girl he interacted with.

 _Hinami._

He missed her.

He missed everyone.

Even that bastard Shuu.

 _Not now, Kaneki._

 _Not now, not ever._

He began sipping down his coffee.

"-and I'm going to school at Beacon Academy-"

"A good school, I heard," he tried interjecting, to make it seem like he was paying more attention than he really was.

"Yeah, it is! It really is! I'm so glad I'm in that school - I got in early!"

"Huh - and how old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"And they just….let you have weapons? For what reason?"

"To practice so we can fight Grimm!"

"Isn't that, like, a child soldier thing though?"

"Huh?"

"You're sending yourself off to fight before you've even graduated high school."

"Yeah, but….we're gonna help people!"

It was as if she was trying to convince herself.

"Yeah, but, you're still a child soldier."

Ruby seemed to uncomfortable shift in her seat, as if she was hearing a completely different idea-

No.

Is.

No.

No fucking way.

Is this.

Is this just acceptable?

To send children off to die?

No.

No fucking way.

A chill went up and through Kaneki's spine like nothing else before. Not only was he in a world where child soldiers were a common thing, but he was talking to a living, breathing brainwashed victim, who thought her job was a _good thing_.

Being a child soldier was a _good_ job - a noble one.

 _The tournament._

 _Atlas._

 _Weapons._

 _16._

 _Early._

 _Children._

 _Grimm._

God, he was imagining it now - this girl, this sweet, naive girl, was going to be ripped apart by those _things_. Those bastards outside the walls were going to rip her apart, along with the other two, Yang and Weiss. They were going to die. They were going to die in the belly of the beast.

This was happening.

This had happened.

This is going to happen.

"Umm, Kaneki. Are. Are you okay?"

Kaneki jumped out of his chair and began bolting for the door, barely grabbing his change and coffee. He ran past Yang and Weiss arguing.

He ran.

And ran.

And ran.

Ran all the way back to Charlie's apartment.

* * *

Team RWBY were left completely baffled.

"Uhh, Ruby, what happened?"

"Ruby! What did you do?!"

"N-Nothing! I just told him about Beacon and just, got all weird, saying things like we're child soldiers or something."

"Whaaaaaat? That's crazy - don't worry 'bout it sis, he was probably just weird."

Weiss sighed in agreement.

"I hate to admit it, but Yang is right, that guy was weird - he didn't even know what the tournament was."

"No way!"

"Yes, he did - he also said he was completely 'new to this'. Whatever that means."

"He said his mom sheleted him, so maybe that's why?"

"No one can be _that_ sheltered."

"Guys."

The group turned around to see Blake staring them all down, her eyes widened as far as they could go.

She was shaking.

* * *

On Menagerie, the Grimm grew in small, but containable, amounts in the northern side of the island - the section that few, if any, ventured too.

One day, her Blake's father - still leader of the White Fang - decided to travel there.

To the birthing pits.

He collected a group of over thirty men, all the strongest members of the community.

Apparently, their had been reports of what could only be called abominations of nature.

Two headed ursas.

Featherless Nevermores.

Multi-eyed Beowolfs.

And worst of all, the Skels.

Clumps of liquid blackness, nearly but not quite humanoid in shape. Occasionally, Blake would hear stories of them contourting into human like faces.

When killed, they left behind skeletons.

This was expected, considering the circumstances.

After all, the birthing pit came into existence above a Fanus graveyard.

Her father had been asked to clear it out, for the sake of their ancestors.

When the force came back, only five remained, succeeding at their mission.

And Blake had been the day they were buried.

And she remembered the smell.

The smell of the birthing pits.


	6. Chapter 6

Kaneki ran past the various vehicles flying by in the streets - he didn't have time to consider the safety of the situation, he just had to go away.

No, not had. He _needed_ to.

It was a calling from the deepest part of his body, his mind, his soul. Like a command from the darkest pit of his conscious, the pit that maintained his fight or flight response. An old, concealed function of the human brain that still, to this day, would come out and take the reigns in the case of an emergency.

And so, he ran.

And ran.

And ran.

All the way back to Charlie's apartment.

* * *

Charlie, thankfully, hadn't been been paying too much attention to Kaneki's windedness.

He had been too busy reading up on the criminal activities of Roman Torchwick.

Roman had an arrest record longer than most continents, with more warrants and subpoenas and court orders than an entire cell block at a maximum security prison.

And it wasn't strength.

Fuck no - the bastard didn't even have his aura unlocked, at least from the descriptions he could find online.

No.

There was one thing keeping him above the waters in the underworld of Remnant.

Charisma.

If it weren't for that, Roman would have had his balls chopped off a long time ago. Or, at least have that smug smile permanently altered.

Charlie wouldn't have minded that last bit, if he were completely honest with himself.

He clicked off the most recent news story about Roman - something about him working with the White Fang or something.

Charlie was sure that if you took every single connection that Roman made on a board with a red string, the entire board would be blood red.

Blood.

That was going to be spilled before the end of this, wasn't it?

Charlie knew that - but how much?

How many people would have to die before this was over?

And, more importantly, would he be caught in the cross-fire?

These thoughts consumed him by the time Kaneki slammed the apartment door shut, breathing heavily.

"Oh hey, you're back - enjoy the coffee?" Charlie commented, more focused on the next news article and police report than Kaneki's current state of health.

"I," Kaneki breathed out, barely stringing along a coherent sentence together, "I - I - I'm fine."

"It was - it was fun," he finally blurted out, walking towards the couch-bed that Charlie had made.

"That's nice."

Kaneki collapsed on the bed, digging his hands and body into the soft, clean sheets.

"I'm going - to take - a nap."

And with that, Kaneki's tense body relaxed, and his drifted into the sweet bliss of sleep.

As for Charlie, he still had the arduous task of finding where Roman was keeping his shit.

But where?

Of course, he knew that Roman was still in the city - word on the street suggested that much, but the "where" was going to be a much more difficult question to answer.

If the smartest detectives on the Vale Police Department couldn't find out where he was, what hope did a random nobody and his pawn have?

Well, one thing they didn't have was a personal motivation.

Their personal honor and sense of mental stability wasn't on the line.

They wasn't facing an implosion.

* * *

It hadn't been two weeks since he got hooked on Dust till he heard about 'implosions'.

"You know what an implosion looks like, don't ya Charlie?" said Barney, his junkie friend, who introduced him to his (now former) drug dealer.

"No, no I don't Barny," Charlie replied, using his Lien to spread the Dust out before snorting it off the table.

"Oh, oh Charlie, you don't want an implosion - it's the worst thing that could happen to you or me," Barney continued, still sniffling from the leftover remnants of Dust fragments in his nose. He wanted _every_ grain of Dust in his system.

"It's mental collapse - the worst type of collapse. A mental breakdown - no, not that, Charlie. A schizoid type disorder. Your brain and your body are disconnected from one another, like you're severed from your own body."

"Like I'm controlling a video game character?"

"Yeah, yeah exactly Charlie - exactly like a video game character. But you still feel the pain, but it's just….just not _your_ pain. Like the body you're in is a vessel. But a vessel for _what_ Charlie?"

"For what?"

"Nothing, but that's not the point - it just _feels_ like this is a midpoint in some grand narrative. The second act, if you will, and you gotta get out - you gotta get the fuck out _now_ Charlie, right this fucking instance, cause this is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things."

Barney put a lot of emphasis on those last words, something that really hit the nerves of Charlie.

He had already lined up the Dust line as well as possible - a single grain out of line would make the high ever so slightly less better.

"And so, they do everything - and I mean _everything_ Charlie. At this point, they don't particularly interested in morality or decency - it's all a stage, a midpoint, a second act, a bump in the road, all of it worthless in the grand scheme of things, and all things lead back to the end. The beginning to the end - that's all that matters at this point. No one remembers or cares about the nine months you were in your mommy's tummy - they only care about the fuck and the birth. These guys view life as the pregnancy, and their actions as the birth - but what do they need to do to get to the birth?"

"What?"

"They don't know - and that's why they do everything. To get to the end, they will - no, _must_ \- get to the end. Nothing else matters."

"This is all fucking insane."

"It is, but it's true - it'll happen if you don't take care of your habit, Charlie. My first partner got so hooked on that shit, he took his shotgun and blasted his mother's head off. Over. And over. And over. And over and over and over…"

Charlie stopped paying attention to it after that, however, as this line wasn't going to snort itself.

* * *

Charlie hadn't thought of that conversation in about three years.

Barney imploded, just like his partner before him. Charlie found him in his apartment in a puddle of blood - apparently, he tried to see if a bullet could get him to "the next stage".

His funeral was the three days later.

No one came.

Except Charlie.

Implosion was horrifying.

Implosion was a death sentence.

Implosion wasn't a fucking option.

Dust wasn't a habit, but a way of life - you lived and died by it. There was treatment for it, of course, but fuck that. Getting high with Dust was one of the best things that Charlie had ever experienced, and it only got better with age and added use. Better than sex. Better than friends. Better than life itself.

He _needed_ it.

And if he had to sacrifice his pawn, so be it.

* * *

 **Ruby stared at the bed sheets hanging above her makeshift bunk-bed.**

She couldn't help but here that guy's words in her mind, echoing over and over again.

" _Yeah, but, you're still a child soldier._ "

Was that all she really was?

A child soldier, sent off to fight in a war she had no part in creating?

She didn't like these thoughts.

She didn't like them at all.

They made her entire dream - all her sacrifices, all her training, all her countless hours of planning and thinking and studying and everything in between - seem so awful, so sickening.

Was it awful?

Was her dream just a result of brainwashing, or something like that?

No.

No, it couldn't have been.

It would make everything pointless.

All the deaths.

All the suffering.

All of it, pointless.

And she didn't want to disappoint her

( _mother_ )

teammates or her teachers. They had sacrificed much to get her to this point too, and her quitting would make it all pointless.

Besides, the

( _love_ )

goodness she'd

( _get_ )

Spread would more than make up for any potential moral outrages.

Yeah.

Yeah, she was starting to feel kinda better now.

She turned over in her bed, closing her eyes for the last time that night.

* * *

Kaneki felt the eyes of the girl on him.

They were in the fields again.

Kaneki was half expecting Rize to pop up again, but he was sure he had consumed her a long time ago.

The girl had red hair, and bright, silver eyes that seemed to bulge out of her head.

Her smile was innocent.

Kind.

Sweet.

Naive.

Her eyes closed as Kaneki saw them, her smile deepening.

It was like she was signaling ' _hey, don't worry man, I got this_ '.

That smile didn't last long before a black void rose from the red spider lilies, morphing into a disgusting amalgamation of slime and bone.

In the void, Kaneki could see a barely visible mouth.

It was smiling.

It swiftly chomped the upper half of the girl's body - so fast she didn't even react.

The creature swallowed the rest of her bleeding body, sucking it down like a vacuum cleaner.

It twisted it's mouth into an even larger grin.

" _Oiiiiiiii Kaneki~ I got a surprise for yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"_

It was a feminine voice.

As it finished that sentence, the creature began to choke on something. In what Kaneki assumed was it's throat, a definable shape seemed to appear.

It moved upwards.

Becoming ever more defined and recognizable as time wore on.

Seconds felt like hours.

Finally, with one swift and disgusting gurgle, the creature disposed of the lump in its throat.

It didn't take Kaneki long to recognize the figure.

 _ **crack**_

The figure's face moved upright, staring at Kaneki in an unnatural position where the adam's apple extended nearly all the way out.

Kaneki didn't even need to look at its face to know who it was - he had studied the beak mask of his long enough.

 _ **kaneki**_

 _ **kaneki**_

 _ **kaneki**_

 _ **kaneki**_

 _ **accept**_

 _ **accept ME**_

 _ **ME**_

 _ **ME**_

ME

ME

ME

ME

ME

 _ **ACCEPT ME**_

The figure moved its way off the ground, unnaturally cracking and bending its body to do so.

It walked its way over to Kaneki.

Kaneki wanted to run, but the metal chains wrapped around the base of the wooden chair kept him in place.

It towered over him.

Its slim, fit figure and distended neck made it seem gigantic in comparison to him.

 _ **ACCEPT**_

ACCEPT

ACCEPT

The creature's neck elongated, stretching a good three, four, five, _six_ feet in the air, eventually ending up nearly above Kaneki's face, swinging in the air, mear inches away from his eyes.

The creature's arms grabbed a hold of Kaneki's mouth.

The creature dug its fingers inside Kaneki's mouth, grabbing onto his lower jaw.

The creature forced it open.

A snap.

Kaneki's jaw began swinging loosely in the air.

It was so cold.

The blood dripped from his mouth.

The creature grabbed ahold of Kaneki's mouth, forcing it upwards so that their mouths were mear inches within each other.

The creature opened its mouth.

And from within

centipedes began pouring out

 _ **ACCEPT ME**_

 _ **ACCEPT ME**_

 _ **ACCEPT ME**_

 _ **ACCEPT ME**_

 _ **ACCEPT**_

 _ **ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME  
ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME  
ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME  
ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME  
ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME **_

* * *

Kaneki awoke screaming.


	7. Chapter 7

"Kaneki?"

Kaneki looked up from the book he found in Charlie's bookshelf, which was layered with months - probably years - worth of dust. His eyes seemed to glisten in the mid-afternoon glow, his face focused. It was as if he was trying to maintain some form of professionalism in front of Kaneki - which, was somewhat understandable, considering they were officially 'business' partners.

"Hmm?"

"What happened last night to make you go-"

"Screaming?"

"Yes, that."

Kaneki sighed.

"I don't remember."

"Okay."

Kaneki looked back down at the page he was reading, and Charlie seemed to walk off back to his computer, the familiar typing of his keyboard signaling that Kaneki was - once again - alone.

 _liar_

* * *

Russel Thrush, member of Team CRDL, was accompanying their oh-so-great leader to the library to 'research' - and by 'research', they meant harass the Fanus girl Velvet while maybe checking a couple books out for a history essay.

He didn't understand why Cardin loved picking on that girl so much. Sure, she was pathetic and had no spine, despite being a second year, but, come on, there was only so much you could get out of one victim.

But everytime Russel tried to get Cardin to go after other targets - like Ruby, or, hell, any of the other Fanus on campus - he'd just glare and threaten to beat Russel's bed into splinters.

And so, Russel involved himself in the bullying of the little rabbit girl.

Of course, Russel tried to sneak away from the main group to, like, you know, _actually_ research a group essay project, instead of picking on some defenseless rabbit.

He searched through the history section, dragging his fingers across the rows of books, trying to find a specific one - _Huntsmen; A Political History_ by Kerry Jackson (strange name, he thought).

The book was what his mother used to call _well loved_ \- the paperback cover was crumbling at the seams, and the pages were one or two hard flips away from being completely ripped out of the book. It was worn by years and years of being stuffed inside this fucking library, used by stupid, immature Beacon students (like himself, Russel thought). It was his go to history book - the language was concise without being boring, the information interesting without being overbearing. It was the perfect history book for research - fun _and_ informative. Sort of like a good fiction book.

But today he just couldn't find it - had someone else checked it out?

No way. Nobody checked that fucking thing out, and it was stuffed in the very back of the library, the place no one ever went because it was filled with old people.

Had he accidently forgot to turn it in and it was back in the dorm? Russel was messy, but not _that_ messy - he wouldn't misplace something that important to him in his room, _especially_ around Cardin.

He walked down the aisle one more time.

Shit, nothing.

He walked out of the aisle, looking around. He scanned the surroundings, the only thing around being a couple of completely empty tables.

Well, except that one - the kid with the white hair, but -

Wait a minute.

Is.

Is that Atlas fucker using _his_ book?

 _His_?

 _No fucking way cuuuuuuuunt._

He made his way to the kid - he was staring down at the worn book, looking through the pages like a baby.

Russel bet that he was just that - a fucking baby. And he was gonna take his candy.

Yeah, yeah that would work, he thought.

"Oi," he said, sitting right next to the kid.

"Huh?" the Atlas cocksucker responded, him turning to his right to see Russel staring at him.

"Whatcha reading?"

"Um, _Huntsmen; A Political History_ \- why you ask?"

"Oh no _particular_ reason - I just think it's kinda rude to take someone's book like that."

"What?"

"You heard right - that book in yer hand is _mine_ , so you best give it back."

"No."

It took Russel 3.21 seconds to process those words.

"W-What?"

"I said no - I'm reading it, and I'm willing to give it to you after I'm done reading it."

Russel couldn't believe it - this fucker, _this fucking cocksucking faggot_ , was telling _him_ what to do.

It took Russel all of his strength to not knock the fucker off his block right then.

"Alright kid - you're obviously new around here, so let me give you some advice. When a member of Team CRDL tells you to do something, _you best fucking compile_."

"Nah."

This time, it only took Russel 0.91 seconds to process those words.

Russel stormed off - he knew what he needed to do now. He had a new target, something that Cardin and the rest would have loved to know.

* * *

Kaneki walked back with five books in his possession, all revolving around the immediate history of the past 100 years. He had enough money to purchase a library card, most of it change from the night he tried getting coffee.

It was relaxing.

The smell of paper, the occasional murmur or taping of keys, and general old smell brought some comfort back to Kaneki. Despite being brought through time and space, he at least felt comfort in the fact that all libraries are kinda the same at basic.

He carried the books in his hand - he _really_ missed his satchel from the college days.

College.

To think he got into Kami university, and dropped out because of his new nature.

To think, if things turned out differently, he'd probably have his degree in Japanese Literature now.

If things turned out differently.

He shaked off that sentence fast - the thought alone made him uncomfortable.

 _Not now, not ever._

He turned another corner, trying to shove any and all thoughts relating to his old life aside. Now wasn't the time to think of that - the only thing that mattered was the here and now.

He wouldn't break down.

He _couldn't_ break down.

He just had to put one foot in front of the other. No big deal.

No big deal.

* * *

Cardin cracked his knuckles, the first time in a long while. He felt the familiar pop of the air pressure between the joints, and gained satisfaction from the small, barely audible crack of his neck as he moved his head around.

The rest of his crew was laughing at the eventual pummeling this little shitbird would get - some little Atlas sissy boy would get his brains based in. To think Atlas - one of the few civilized countries left on this planet, according to his father - would breed such a worthless, _pathetic_ loser was sickening.

Even humans weren't immune to an inferior pedigree, he supposed.

Cardin felt something vibrate in his pocket - his scroll. He dug inside, grabbed the scroll, and looked to see who sent it.

It was Russ.

" _he coming down street prepare"_

He smirked - this wouldn't the first time he pulled a pump-and-dump like this. He'd drag the little bastard into an alley, and they'd all go to town.

Well, _he'd_ go to town - the crew would act as scouts. Cardin would do the majority of the work, like usual. He was the brawns and brains of the group, even if those little fuckers Jaune and Ruby and all those other do-gooder faggots thought otherwise. _He_ was chosen to lead the group, _he_ was the one who kept it together, and _he_ was the one who would live a comfortable and - more importantly - _safe_ job. While those other bastards got themselves killed, Cardin would be somewhere _far_ away from the Grimm - out in Atlas, probably. Somewhere rich and Fanus-free, or at least in a place with _good_ Fanus. Ones who knew their place and had self-respect for that place.

Yeah. Yeah, that sounded _nice_.

"The Atlas guy's coming," whispered Sky, who was slightly looking out of the alley.

"What's he doing?" responded Cardin.

"Just looking at the ground."

 _Good._

He would grab him, and throw him into the trash cans. The pure force of the shove would at minimum leave a minor sprain in his ankle. Then, when the fucker was trying to find out what the hell even happened, Cardin would kick him straight in the balls - no amount of aura would make that not painful. From there, no amount of begging or pleading would make Cardin stop.

When his ten minutes were done, he'd let Russel spit on his face, taking his book. It was _his_ suggestion, after all. It was only fair he got the final laugh.

That plan sounded good.

Like the natural culmination of hundreds of experiments over the course of a decade, all leading back to this moment.

What was that shitty saying? _Like shooting fish in a barrel_?

That felt oddly applicable.

The footsteps of the guy became more and more audible.

Cardin made his move.

And he froze.

* * *

If Cardin was asked who he hated more than anyone else, he would have replied Velvet, that Fanus weakling bitch.

If he was asked who he wanted to fuck more than anyone else, he would have responded Glynda Goodwitch, that curvy fucking slut.

If he was asked who he wanted to be more than anyone else, he would have responded (with some measured reluctance) Pyrrha, the one girl who could kick his ass.

But if he were asked who he was afraid of more than anyone else, well, he would have given a stock answer - 'Yang', 'Ozpin', 'father'.

But they all would have been bullshit.

No.

He remembered the day it began - it was in science class when he was twelve years old, when a student asked if there was ever such a thing as human-like Grimm.

The teacher went silent, uncomfortably looking at the student.

Cardin could remember the answer, word for word.

" _Well, you see, while there has been no_ recorded _instance of human-like Grimm in human history, they are, like most things, not completely out of the question. Theoretically, it would be possible for such entities - after extended periods of time, with hundreds maybe even thousands of years backing them up - to have the intelligence and form of a human being. Of course, again, I_ must _stress this, that this is completely theoretical, and it has never been observed, and, considering the power and strength of our kingdom's huntsmen, there will_ never _be a human-like Grimm, in ours or any of your children's lifetimes._ "

And so the class - and by extension, Cardin - moved on, not giving the answer any more thought.

That night, after the screaming of his father and mother and the ceremonial plate smashing downstairs, he dreamed.

And in his dreams, he saw things.

He saw many, many things.

Sometimes, they felt more real than memories.

And that night

he saw _it_.

The creature's red, elongated tendrils extended from its back, several thousand of them moving and swaying in the air as the creature's bones cracked and snapped under their very weight. Its long white hair swayed, blocking its eyes from Cardin's sight.

It chased him.

It chased him for miles

and miles.

But no matter how far Cardin ran,

no matter how much strength he exerted to just get one more foot from it

 _it_

 _always_

 _got_

 _him._

Alone.

In the dark.

It would pin him first.

Then it would dig inside his chest, looking for something, _anything_ to eat.

Cardin would scream.

And he always had enough air to scream.

Once it was done, Cardin could see its face.

The beak mask.

With a eye at the top.

A red and black eye.

" _Cardin~_ ", it giggled out, its mouth extending way past what any normal jaw could possibly do.

" _Cardiiiiiiin~ I'm going to EAT you~_ "

Cardin's face would be soaked with tears, and he would continue to scream and scream for his mommy and daddy.

" _Don't worry little buddy -_

 _ **crack**_

 _just start counting~_ "

Cardin knew the numbers by heart.

" _1-1-1000….9-993….9-9-986….._ "

The creature caressed his cheek, the tears still streaming.

" _Good boy, good boy…."_

The nightmare would end, of course, as all nightmares do.

But every once in a while, he would have it again.

And again.

And again.

He tried telling his mother about the dreams - the nightmares, the _thing_ \- but she would just look at him.

"Y-Yuh fucking - Y-Yuh fucking what kid?"

Her slurred speech made any conversation with her impossible, even if she cared about the dreams.

Then Cardin tried telling his father.

"Get out of my office _now_ you fuckin...God, where's my syringe….too many fuckin - GET OUT YOU CUNT!"

Cardin would run out of his father's office, barely missing a glass from breaking against the back of his head.

He never told anyone else.

* * *

His heart stopped beating for less than a second.

He instantly felt his temperature lower to sub-freezing temperature.

He felt goosebumps develop all over his body, developing in places he didn't even know goosebumps _could_ develop in.

He felt his bowels drop and a wet mark develop all around nether regions.

He felt his eyes well up.

Unlike his dream self, he didn't run. He _couldn't_ run - his legs were glued to the floor of the street, and his eyes permanent focused on the creature's eyes.

It's grey eyes.

It's grey fucking eyes.

In those seconds, he imagined all the things it would do to him - mangle his insides with its large tendrils, slowly forcing its tendrils into his mouth and digging his internal organs out one by one while the rest of his team was forced to watch, and ripping his dick and balls off - all of it swirled inside his mind like a rabid animal thinking of every single possible scenario.

The shakes were getting to him,

He wanted to run.

He wanted to fight.

But more than anything else

he wanted to cry.

* * *

"Okay, okay, so, how long has he been this way?" commented Glynda Goodwitch to Russel. In truth, if she wasn't on duty, she probably wouldn't have cared about anything relating to Cardin or any one of the Team CRDL members. She just couldn't care beyond what was needed of her professionally or to her personally. Why should she care about these lousy excuses for human beings?

But, she was on-duty, and even if she wasn't she'd probably still help, because _of course_ she'd have to. It was her job, wasn't it?

"A couple days now - he hasn't been showing up to classes or anything, and we're all starting to become worried," replied Russel. "Ever since he saw that kid."

"What kid?"

"I don't know - I think he was an Atlas transfer or something, maybe for the tournament. I don't really know."

"Do you have any information on this child? Name? Any identifying features?"

"No - well," he said and began to trail off.

"'Well' what?"

"I saw him in the library, and, well, he had a book - called ' _Huntsmen; A Political History_ ' out of the library. It should be the only copy there, considering old and used it was."

"I see. What else?"

"Well, he had white hair, and that was about it. Nothing else, really."

"And what about Cardin? What has he been doing besides crying?"

"Well…" he trailed off.

"Mr. Thrush, your leader and - presumably - friend is having a nervous breakdown, and if are to nurse him back to the health, I must know the extent of it. Tell me - _what has he been doing_?"

Russel took out a piece of crumpled up paper from his back pocket, and handed it to Glynda.

On the front was a large, childlike drawing of a creature with black tendrils popping from its back. It was drawn with ink.

The words "GRIMM GRIMM GRIMM GRIMM PLEASE" were written in almost incomprehensible lettering.

"What else?"

Ruseel took out three more pieces, each of similar drawings, but each one grew even more deranged and inhuman than the last.

But they all seemed to have a similar theme.

" _Please DONT LET DIE i dont want DIE_ " was written on one.

"1000 993 986 979" and so on on the other.

But the last message intrigued her the most, and made her realize the importance of the situation.

"HUMAN-GRIMM", plastered in big black lettering above a picture of a humanoid creature ripping apart a small, stick-figure boy.

"I see," she calmly responded. "I'll discuss this with Professor Ozpin - for now I will send in a mental health professional in to relocate Cardin to a more….calming location, for a period of time."

"Oh god, thank you Mrs. Goodwitch - just, try not to mention anything about Grimm or the kid either? He seems extremely unnerved and uncomfortable around any discussion of Huntsmen things as well. Just try to make him comfortable, okay? I don't wanna lose my leader."

The bastard was lying through his goddamn teeth, and they both knew it.

"I'm glad you're so concerned for your leader's mental health - don't worry, he'll be perfectly fine."

She was lying through her goddamn teeth, and they both knew it.

And so, Russel walked off from her.

She pulled her scroll out and dialed Ozpin's number.


	8. Chapter 8

Cardin woke up in a well lit, carpeted room. He felt his ass stuck in a plastic chair, and something metal around his hand.

He tried to get up, but felt metal pieces keep him there.

He wretched his head up to look down at his hands and feet.

Cuffs.

 _Shit._

God his head heart - did something happen? The last thing he remembered was being in his dorm having a - well, if he were completely honest with himself, having a nervous breakdown. Or, what his father used to call it - _a temper tantrum._

His father's voice berated him.

 _Wow Cardin - what the_ fuck _was that, you dumb cunt? God, you're so stupid. So fucking stupid. I should have half a mind to bring out the switch on you. Hell, remember when you were a kid, and you got that bad grade in math, and I beat your face in so hard with that thing it was red for a week, and you told your teachers it was an 'allergic reaction'? Of course you do, you always fucking remember, don't you Cardin? Your behavior back there was pathetic - you call yourself a man? Worthless. I've seen little girls act better than that shit - why were you born such a fucking failure? Fuck. Goddamn, you're fucking worthless. Shit, I beat half the reason you got into that stupid fucking school was because of_ my _name, not your 'talent'. The Winchester name, a name and people that could be traced back to the founding of our great nation, to the elimination of the Fanus threat, to the Great war, and you'll be the one to carry it on._ You. _That's sad. You're sad Cardin. You're fucking path-_

Click.

He raised his head up and saw two people enter the room. One was Ozpin - he was more than familiar with that cane and coffee mug - but the other was a new one. He had white hair, with orange patches here and there. His clothing looked like nothing more than rags stitched together over the course of multiple years. His face was downcast, but not sad - he just seemed focused.

And he was carrying a weapon inside the room.

 _SHIT._

The circumstances weren't looking so good - first the handcuffs, then Ozpin, and now the weapon from some huntsmen.

God, had they finally caught up to his bullying of Velvet? That bitch - that fucking bitch. That fucking _whore_ ratted him out. She fucked him _dry. Without lube._

But, why the handcuffs? Most bullies aren't handcuffed, at least from his experience.

And why the weapon? He wasn't going to resist - had something happened?

"Hello, Cardin. This is my associate, Vaja, and he will be here today - don't mind the weapon, Vaja's isn't used to the environment of the school."

Vaja nodded at Cardin.

"What….what's going on?"

Ozpin and Vaja walked to the chairs, sitting themselves.

"Oh, don't worry, you're not in any trouble - we've just heard from some of your teammates about your….current mental state."

 _Damnit - they think I'm gonna do something dangerous aren't I? Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-_

"L-Listen," Cardin began, still feeling groggy, "I-I don't know what you're thinking, Professor Ozpin, but I'm n-"

"A danger? Oh, don't worry - the handcuffs are just there to make sure you don't resist."

"Resist?"

"You were difficult to handle during your relocation."

"What?"

"You are, for the time being, going to be relocated towards a mental health facility. Don't worry, it will all be paid for, and your family won't be charged. They will be notified as well, and given visitation rights."

"Now," Ozpin said, "tell me about this….person who you encountered, before your incident?"

Cardin felt a frog develop in his throat.

The flashes began to come again.

The flashes of gore and death came in and out and he wanted out _he wanted fucking out right now right fucking n-_

Ozpin grabbed hold of Cardin's shoulders.

"Listen, after you answer my questions, you will never be forced to acknowledge this person ever again. I'm sorry for putting you into this position, but the circumstances are truly important."

Cardin tried to control his breathing.

It sorta worked.

Kinda.

(Not really.)

But he was at least more stable than before.

"Okay, okay, okay. Promise?"

"I promise. After this, the incident will be swept under the rug, and it will never be acknowledged by any of your professors or colleagues."

"Thank you, thank you."

Cardin was surprised - not at the offer, although he was, but it was more at the large amount of emotion in his voice than anything else.

"You're welcome, Mr. Winchester. Now, onto the question."

Cardin thought about it. He thought about it so fucking hard. The dream and the memories began flushing and conjuling together, creating a mixture of reality and unreality that felt real and unreal at the same time. It was hard to determine what was fantasy and what was real, and it was becoming even harder in determining if that even mattered. Either way, they felt more than real.

But he thought about the boy.

"Ever since I was a child, I had nightmares. Horrible, horrible nightmares. They…."

He trailed off. Cardin swallowed the air, trying to get it down into his system before he would begin crying. God, he felt so pathetic and weak then. His hands reeked of sweat and perspiration. His greatest nightmare had become a reality, and he couldn't even find the words to process his feelings on that. _Could_ the human language translate those emotions anyway? Cardin hoped it could.

"...they were horrifying. Like a horror movie, but you're there. You're there, and the monster is chasing you in the woods. And when it gets you, it doesn't kill you. It makes you _suffer_ \- it makes you _bleed_. It makes you hurt and cry and….and….and…."

Another deep breathe.

"...and I just saw him."

"Him?" questioned Ozpin.

"I saw him. I saw him, I saw him there. The monster. The white haired monster. _He_ made me suffer. _He_ made me bleed. _He_ made me cry and cry for my mom and dad, _he_ made me count down from 1000 by 7 because he wanted to make me suffer, he wanted to make me suffer and I-"

Cardin again tried to calm himself, but it failed, and he began crying and whimpering in his chair. God, he felt so weak and pathetic. He wanted to die. He wanted to fucking kill himself more in that moment than all of his years of living. He wanted to die more than that time that one girl turned him down at a school dance, more than his mother and father's fighting, and more than being beaten by that fucking cunt Jaune.

God, he just wanted to fucking die.

* * *

"What do you think, Ozpin? Do you think this boy could lead us to the creature?"

"I am unsure, Vaja, but I will look into the library records for this boy. Glynda, what was the book recently checked out?"

" _Huntsmen; A Political History_ , I believe."

"Good. I'll have Beacon's Library staff look through the records - it shouldn't be too hard, as it's been less than a week."

"Will this be mine and Smo's job, Ozpin?"

"If you want - however, I will be calling in someone extremely versed in fighting….peculiar Grimm infestations."

"Qrow?"

"Yes, Vaja. I am calling in Qrow."

"Do you think he'll be enough to take this creature down?"

"No, but that's why he isn't going to be alone."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm afraid I must keep that secret, for the time being. However, I will tell you upon telling the rest of the Security Council about this development."

"Understood."

Vaja walked out of the room, pressing the elevator button to the ground floor.

"Ozpin?"

"Yes Glynda?"

"Do you really think it's possible for another creature like this to exist? Considering the recent developments, it's odd that another player has entered the field, so to speak."

"Curious indeed. However, if we are to survive in our war, we must be willing to treat every potential threat as a reality. I'm not taking any chances after the breach."

"Understood. Do you wish for me to contact Mr. Winchester's family about this?"

"Yes, that would be splendid - also, if possible, try to acquire correspondence from Mr. Winchester's to send to his family. It would be unwise to tell them this without a reassurance."

"Understood."

Ozpin turned his chair around, looking out at the empty dark sky. The stars were twinkling, and the shattered moon was starting to wane.

* * *

Kaneki looked up at the waning moon, leaning against the cold glass window. The rocks were floating ever so subtly in the fading white glow of the celestial object.

It was so ugly.

It was so _wrong_.

"Charlie," he called out.

"Y...Yes - YES! YES Kaneki, what?" Charlie said, trying to composure himself, his face covered in definable marks from where his earlier nap on the computer's keyboard.

"Why is the moon shattered?"

"I don't know. Consult a book or something."

Kaneki huffed.

"Any theories?"

"Nope. Don't care, really."

"Why?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I want to know."

"And I don't care to know."

Kaneki walked away from the window towards Charlie. He peeked over his shoulders to see what he was working on.

"Anything regarding our job?"

"Not yet, I'm still trying to think of a plan."

"Hmm. How long till we actually do it?"

"A week, tops."

"Hmm."

"Can you stop that?"

"What?"

"That 'hmm' bullshit. It sounds stupid."

"Alright."

Silence.

This was going to be a long week.

* * *

It had been a week since Ruby thought about the incident with that weird kid, and she had completely forgotten what he had said. Something about….child smores? Something like that - her memory wasn't that good to begin with, let alone with something she'd rather forget altogether.

Life had moved on, as it always had, and always will.

The tournament season was beginning to start, and the different schools were starting to send their students. Vacou had delivered all their students last week, and Mistral was preparing. Word was that Atlas was making the finishing touches on their robot units.

Team RWBY had already restarted their monthly board game bonding activities.

They had began studying more and more for tests.

They had began practicing for the tournament everyday.

They were getting stronger and better and everything else.

Everything almost seemed to be going back to normal.

Except for Cardin.

Normally, the brute wouldn't have caught Ruby's attention - and why would it? Other than being strong and related to a famous name, what did Cardin have going for him? Being a massive jerk? Being a racist prick? Being an elitist snob?

No thanks - Ruby already had one elitist snob in her life, and, as much as she loved her, she'd rather not have another one, thanks.

But still, the absence of Cardin was, in of itself, concerning. As annoying as he was, his presence was always felt. With him gone, it was gone.

Normally, having such a horrible presence lifted would have felt pretty good - getting rid of the horrible racist? Sign her up!

But instead it was replaced with something….different. As if something had happened. Something horrible.

"Professor Port?" asked a student one day, uncomfortable shifting in her chair. "Do you know where Cardin is? He's usually here by n-"

"Cardin is taking a mandatory break from school for an extended period of time - if you wish to contact him, take it up with Headmaster Ozpin."

And the subject was dropped.

There were rumors, of course. Some witnesses. Unsubstantiated claims. Involving screaming. Crying. A boy. A new boy.

A white haired boy.

Ruby grew uncomfortable when she heard that detail.

* * *

"Okay, the first annual Team RWBY planning meeting has finally commenced!"

"Why is it annual?" asked Weiss, annoyed at her being pried from her studies.

"Yeah, wouldn't it be better if it was every month or so?" remarked Blake.

"Nah, I think it's nice," responded Yang, twirling a pen in her hand.

"Do you even know what the word 'annual' even _means_?"

"It's, like….two years, right?"

"QUIET I'M TRYING TO HAVE A SUPER SERIOUS MEETING HERE!"

"Okay geez Rubes, what's gotten into you?"

"It's about Cardin. Something bad must have happened to him."

"...and we care why?" questioned Weiss, one of her eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, why do we care. Cardin's a bully - he was probably expelled."

"Good riddance - I'm only disappointed that I didn't have the opportunity to smash his skull in."

"It's more than just Cardin - it's about that guy we met at the Cookie Corral."

Silence.

Uncomfortable, awkward silence.

"Do you guys not remember? His name was….his name was….I'm trying to remember, Weiss, do you remember his name?"

"Kaneki," she said, shifting slightly, tugging at the sleeves her jacket.

"Yeah! Yeah yeah! Kaneki - Kaneki something-or-other. Doesn't matter - I think he had something to do with Cardin. And no, Blake and Yang, I DON'T think he was expelled."

"What do you think happened to him then?" asked Blake.

"I think Kaneki did something to him."

"Like what?"

"I, uh, didn't get that far ahead of the plan - but fear not! I think it's best to find him and interrogate him!"

"Well, if we're interrogating him, I'll play bad cop."

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaang, _I_ wanted to play bad cop!"

"Ruby. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?"

"I'm only a little cute."

"Stop lying to yourself."

"Stop! We aren't interrogating _anyone_ \- first of all, why do you even think that Kaneki caused Cardin to be away from school?" asked Weiss.

"Rumors."

"...and so you're basing our entire operation under the assumption that school yard rumors are accurate sources of information?"

"Yes."

Weiss facepalmed so hard her forehead stung.

"Listen, Ruby, even assuming its true - which, I doubt - what's the likelihood that we'll just find him wandering around the city?"

"Excellent question, my feline friend!" Ruby exclaimed, her finger pointed in the air. "You!"

"M-Me?" Blake blubbered out.

"Yes you! With your amazing powers of scent, you could track him down - you remember his smell right?"

"I wouldn't forget it for the world, but Ruby, I don't-"

"Great! While out there, you can interrogate him about that too - maybe he had a bad day and fell into some Grimm slime. Anyway, all in favor?"

"Aye!" screamed Yang.

"Aye!" followed Ruby.

"Nay," said Weiss.

Blake sighed. Part of her really didn't want to do this, but on the other, she knew she was going to be pulled along anyway. Like most things in life.

"Aye…."

"Yay! We'll start on Saturday, which is ….five days away!"

 _What could possibly go wrong?_ Thought Ruby.


	9. Chapter 9

Charlie had done it.

He had fucking done it.

He _fucking_ did it.

Well, he didn't _exactly_ find it.

Just, nailed it down to a couple probable locations.

Quiet easy, actually.

Firstly, they'd need a place to, like, actually store the Dust in. Probably not all concentrated in one central location, but still, it would be a start.

Then, he'd look for rented Warehouses. Shit, even abandoned warehouses would probably do. As long as they could possibly be used by Roman, it would be on the list.

That created a list of fifteen different warehouses over the city. He eliminated the ones that had already been raided by the Vale Police force with bullshit claims, which left him with thirteen warehouses. Of course, these were just the ones that were directly operational - again, it was totally possible for them to use abandoned ones. In total, it was probably around thirty ones. Then again, most of them would contain homeless people, which, again, would cut down on possible number of used warehouses.

He had a list of 13 potential operations ones, and another 16 unoperational ones. In total, it was 29 total warehouses he'd need to scout out.

Well, not him. Kaneki. But, well, he had done all the research already, so he _basically_ scouted it in every manner but name.

Charlie was fucking ecstatic.

No implosion for him baby!

But…

He was starting to feel sleepy.

He turned away from the glow of the monitor to see Kaneki sleeping in the couch-bed. He had a book covering his face, snoring. Part of him truly envied Kaneki in that moment - not for anything inherent to Kaneki, but just because he _really_ wanted to sleep.

Fuck.

Okay, he promised himself, just a _little_ nap.

He deserved that much.

* * *

 _He sat at the dinner counter. A smell entered his nostrils. He didn't know what it was, but it smelled fucking amazing._

 _It smelled so_ fucking _good._

 _He wanted._

 _He tapped his feet together._

" _Excited aren't ya little buddy?"_

" _Yes daddy! I'm so hungry," he said, his voice audibly softer and less deep._

 _He felt weirder too. His feet couldn't touch the floor. They just dangled in the air._

 _Lightly._

 _Swaying._

 _He grinned._

 _Charlie was so hungry._

" _Okay sweetie," his mother said, love and sweetness filling ever syllable and vowel of her speech patterns, "it's ready!"_

 _Charlie beat his fork and spoon against the wooden table._

 _It was still early. The light of the morning sun were entering from the half cracked window. It almost created a reflective glow._

" _Eat up!"_

 _Charlie's heart stopped beating for a good second._

 _His smile frozen._

" _Charwe….pwease...help…pwease…"_

 _Kaneki's voice wretched those barely audible words from his decapitated mouth. His white air had been covered in blood. His teeth had been removed and placed around the plate as decoration._

" _Here's your drink sweetie - your favorite!"_

He looked to see his clear sippy cup, with an eyeball floating.

 _It shifted, its cornea looking directly at Charlie._

" _And the finishing touches…."_

 _His mother took out a Dust crystal - something that, if sold, could have fed them all for a whole month._

 _She placed it on the table, directly on top of Kaneki's head._

 _She gave him a hammer._

" _Charlie~ You know what to do~"_

 _Charlie gribbed the hammer's hilt._

 _He felt himself shaking all over._

" _Come on Charlie," came a familiar voice._

 _He looked to his right to where his father was - Barny's face was there. His father's hair and body were all the same. The only thing that was different was Barny's face had morphed onto his father's._

" _Charlie, eat."_

He looked up to the voice. His mother's face.

 _Charlie's transposed._

The flesh morphing and stretching to accommodate it.

 _Charlie wanted to throw up._

 _He could feel himself gag at the ghastly scene._

" _Implosion. Implosion. Implosion. Implosion."_

" _Yes Charlie! You don't wanna implode do you? Do you?! You worthless fucking faggot - don't fucking implode on me. Your mother wouldn't enjoy that very much."_

" _B-But I-I d-d-don't wan-na hurt any-"_

" _Charlie my boy, there are no friends in this business - you think if the situation was reversed, he'd give you a second thought?"_

" _Yes what she said - don't let your mamma and papa down by dying like this. How sad would they be if they found you with a shotgun in your mouth, I wonder."_

Charlie's body began shaking.

 _Shaking._

 _Shaking._

 _Shaking._

" _P-Please. P-Please don't make me-"_

" _DO IT YOU FUCKING PUSSY!"_

 _Charlie felt tears running down his face._

" _Please god I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I don't...I don't wanna hurt anyone."_

" _Shoulda thought about that before getting involved. Now," the Barny-Father thing said._

 _It grabbed his right hand, the hammer still inside._

" _N-No - l-let me go!"_

 _It ignored his cries._

 _The Barny-Mother thing rushed over and restrained his other side._

" _Please! Mommy! Daddy! Stop, stop please, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna do this. I'll do anything, just don't make me. Don't make me. Don't make me, god, please. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for doing this, just please don't make me-"_

The Barny-Father thing grabbed tighter onto his right hand, raising it up in the air.

" _Please, I'll do anything. I'll get help, I'll go sober. I'll go straight - just please don't make me do this, please oh god I beg of you!"_

" _One."_

The Barny-Father thing raised and lowered Charlie's hand, barely hanging over Kaneki's face.

" _Two."_

" _God I'm sorry, god I'm sorry. Kaneki I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."_

Charlie's face felt so cold in winter. He was sure the water was freezing on his face.

" _Three!"_

The Barny-Father thing smashed the hammer directly onto the crystal, smashing Kaneki's head in.

" _Pwease….kill….help...Charlie…."_

" _One more time, Charlie!"_

" _NO!"_

The Barny-Father thing ignored his screams and continued to beat the crystal (and, by extension, Kaneki's) in.

 _It went on for what felt like hours, each successive swing beating ever so more into the skull of Kaneki. Charlie was sure he was seeing the actual brain of Kaneki at this point, as the skull had fully fractured._

 _Kaneki's pleas began to morph into mindless gibberish as it went on._

 _It continued until the Dust was nothing more than dust._

 _The Barny-Father thing dropped Charlie's hand and the hammer._

 _Charlie fell into his chair, which itself fell backwards onto the hard cracked concrete floor._

 _He felt sick. He killed someone. He ended someone's existence. He was a murderer._

 _He was a disgusting pig of a human being. A monster in human skin. No better than the Grimm outside the walls. He deserved to die. He deserved it more than anyone or anything else._

God, how pathetic.

" _Oh no you don't," said the Barny-Mother thing said, grabbing Charlie's hair and forcing him up._

" _Yeah, you gotta enjoy the meal Charlie."_

Charlie felt his stomach urch at Kaneki's face.

 _The front of his face had been bent, with the brain fully exposed. Occasionally, his mouth twitched open and gurgled something out._

 _But that wasn't the worst part._

 _Inside and around the plate_

 _was_

 _(pure)_

 _crushed Dust._

 _Snortable_

 _(amazing)_

 _Dust._

" _Dig in, kid. You only get a meal like this once in a lifetime."_

Charlie felt his legs go weak.

 _It looked._

 _It looked so_

 _(good)_

 _revolting._

 _So_

 _(beautiful)_

 _abhorrent._

 _So_

Amazing.

 _He dropped onto the table and the meal. He began sniffing it, sniffing around and taking any grain of Dust he could get into his body. He didn't care anymore. He wanted it. He wanted it so bad._

 _Kaneki's moans were drowned out by the sound of sniffling and snorting and shrill howls of pleasure._

 _He wanted it so bad. He didn't care about anything else. He blocked out the human head right below him and just started snorting._

 _He didn't even notice the tears streaming down his face._

* * *

Charlie woke up screaming, snapping his face upwards from the keyboard so hard his chair lurched itself back and onto the floor.

His breathing was heavy.

He felt around on his face, searching for any signs of tears.

None.

Okay.

Okay.

He was okay.

Just.

Just a dream.

That's all it was.

He curled up into a ball on the floor, feeling the carpeted floor.

He looked up towards Kaneki in the bed.

He was still sleeping.

He felt somewhat relieved at that.

After what felt like an hour, his body got somewhat more comfortable.

Somewhat.

Charlie got up and went to the bathroom.

Opened the toilet seat up.

And threw up.

* * *

"Mom?"

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five seconds."_

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five seconds."_

"I'm sorry I'm such a worthless fuck-up. I'm sorry. I can't. I can't."

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five seconds."_

"I miss you. I miss you so much."

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five seconds."_

"There isn't a single day that goes by that I don't think about you. Think about what..."

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five seconds."_

"...about what you did."

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five seconds."_

"I love you."

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five seconds."_

"I'm sorry."

" _This line has been disconnected. Press 1 for more options. This message will repeat in five -"_

Charlie put the scroll down onto the bathroom floor.

He curled into a ball and began crying.

* * *

BEGIN CALL TRANSCRIPT

OPERATOR: _Hello, I'm with the Vale Public Library, how can I help you?_

OZPIN: _Hello, this is Headmaster Ozpin._

OPERATOR: _Oh, hello Headmaster. What brings you here today?_

OZPIN: _I formally request access to the data pertaining to a recent book checked out - Huntsmen; A Political History, I believe it is called._

OPERATOR: _One moment._

SIX SECOND SILENCE

OPERATOR: _The book was checked out by an individual named Ken Kaneki. That is the only information I am allowed to give out at this time._

OZPIN: _I request access to his formal contact information. It is important, so I would like it done quickly._

OPERATOR: _I'm sorry, but without an official subpen-_

OZPIN: _Under Article 7, Sec. 8 of the Vale Constitution, I have formal authority, as Headmaster of Beacon, to access information relating to a situation involving either the endangerment or harming of one of my students. As this does relates to a student of mine, specifically Cardin Winchester and his team, and another unknown individual, it is my right to access that information, regardless of a legal warrant._

OPERATOR: _One moment._

ONE MINUTE HOLD

OPERATOR: _I have been given permission by my adviser to give away the information of Ken Kaneki._

OPERATOR: _Would you like an address?_

OZPIN: _Yes, that would be good as well._

OPERATOR: _Very well. I will upload this information to your scroll very shortly._

OZPIN: _Thank you. Additionally, I would like video footage of this individual as well to be delivered to me._

OPERATOR: _As you wish, Headmaster._

THREE SECOND SILENCE

OPERATOR: _The information is currently being sent, Headmaster. Do you require anything else?_

OZPIN: _No, but thank you very much. Have a fine day._

END CALL TRANSCRIPT

* * *

Ozpin sat, watching the monitor of the screen at his desk. He rewound the footage, just to take a good look at the perpetrator.

This "Ken" had white hair, and wore a black hoodie.

Interesting.

If Ozpin didn't know better, he would have guessed that he was a normal, average student at Beacon.

But he wasn't.

He looked through the files of Beacon, and there wasn't a single piece of data on a Ken Kaneki in the whole archives.

And the more Ozpin thought about it, the name didn't really line up with any of the countries and their linguistic history. If he had to guess, he would have said that Mistral would have fit it the closest, but even then, there was something off about the name.

It seemed foreign.

 _Too_ foreign.

He looked down at the contact information again.

The only thing that was there was a single address.

Nothing else.

He leaned back into his chair once more.

It was as if this character just appeared out of nowhere.

He rewound it just one more time.

 _Ding._

The familiar ding of the elevator notified Ozpin of a visitor. Despite this, he was engrossed in enough in his thought and work that he didn't really look past the see-through monitor.

"Hello, Headmaster Ozpin?"

It was Smo, the huntsmen who discovered the stranger in Mountain Glenn.

That made him set the footage aside for a moment to look at her.

Half of her head was shaved, as was her customary hair-style. It was dark and purple, gothic in style and beautifully woven together to create a seemingly uniform color scheme.

Her blue eyes stared at him from the darkness.

"Why, hello Smo - it has been some time, hasn't it?"

"Y-yes, Headmaster. Four years since I've graduated."

"Three years, nine months, two weeks, and nine days, to be exact."

"Heh."

She moved across the room, to the chairs.

"You don't mind if I….if I."

She choked up. She just couldn't find the words.

"You want to vent your worries, don't you?"

She nodded, relieved that she didn't have to say it herself.

"Well, sit down. And help yourself to some coffee. It's in the corner, if you're interested."

"I-I'm fine, now."

She sat down, finally arching her back into the comfortable chair. She had been wandering all day, and it felt so good to just relax.

"So," Ozpin began, "what's been on your mind?"

"Well…" Smo began, her words trailing.

Again, she just couldn't find the words.

"It's alright, just take your time."

"I'm scared of that thing."

"Ah, yes, the creature. Vaja has told me that much."

"I'm terrified of what it will do. Something. Something like this has never been seen before. We've been told from birth that something like this - human like Grimm - were impossible. But now. Now _this_. This thing. This thing isn't going to be harmless, or even just another run-of-the-mill creature. It will try to kill us. To destroy everything we know and love. I."

Choking up.

"I don't want to lose this. I don't want to lose everything we've been building up since the Great War be destroyed. I don't. I can't. I don't want to die. I don't want my friends to die."

"I understand. And you won't."

 _Liar._

"You promise?"

"I promise, Smo."

"Thank you, O-Ozpin. God, I look like a mess. I'm supposed to be a huntsmen, and I'm crying like a little bitch? God."

"There's nothing wrong with being afraid, or sad, or even weak, Smo. The important thing is to not let ourselves be controlled it. It's alright to be afraid now. But you can't afford to be controlled by it. When you're on the battlefield, you won't be afraid - will you Smo?"

"No. No I won't."

"Even if you were to go against that?"

She didn't respond at first.

She took a heavy breathe.

"Yes."

Ozpin smiled.

"Good, Smo. Do you feel better?"

"Y-"

She froze. Her eyes slowly moved away from Ozpin and towards the monitor. She was looking at it from the other side, but she could still tell what Ozpin was looking at.

Apparently, Ozpin hadn't fully removed the window of footage from the monitor.

The monitor still contained a chunk of Kaneki's face.

"That's. That's him."

"Come again, Smo?"

"That's him! That's t-t-he _thing_."

Her body began to shiver as she walked around Ozpin's desk and towards the monitor.

She touched the monitor and clicked on the window to zoom in on Kaneki's face.

"That's him. Good God, it's actually him."

"Are you sure it's him, Smo?! Tell me!"

"I'm positive! I'm more than positive - I'll get Vaja, he can vouch for me!"

She ran off from Ozpin's office to the elevator, the doors closing as she chose the bottom floor button inside.

Ozpin looked at the footage.

The puzzle pieces - the pieces that seemed so distant, so unnatural, so completely and utterly disconnected - they all began falling into place.

The hair.

The lack of identity.

The choosing of a history book.

Cardin's drawings.

All of it seemed to connect together.

* * *

BEGIN CALL TRANSCRIPT

OZPIN: _Hello, Qrow. Are you there?_

QROW: _Yes Ozpin? What do you need - I'm -_

GUNSHOT

QROW: _\- kinda in the middle of something!_

OZPIN: _Yes, I can see. It is quite important. You need to return to Vale as soon as possible._

OROW: _Ozpin! I'm in the middle of taking down one of the most important bandit tribes in Mistral - what could possibly be so important as to -_

OZPIN: _Qrow. We found another Queen._

NO RESPONSE

OZPIN: _Or, a King, rather._

FURTHER GUNSHOTS

QROW: _Understood, Ozpin. I'll be there soon._

END TRANSCRIPT

* * *

Roman Torchwick read over the transcript one more time. He was seated in the desk of his warehouse, and it was late. This was just one of the dozens and dozens of transcripts collected over the course of a week.

This was a little pet project of his - he had Neo bug a very particular section of the cell tower. The one specifically made for Ozpin and his inner circle.

Of course, he never told Cinder and her army of misfit children - why would he? It was _his_ project. Besides, it best to keep your hand close at all times. He had played it long enough to know that unspoken rule.

But that was all an aside.

What did they mean?

What was that pathetic excuse of a headmaster and his pet planning?

And who was this King?

It was obvious that, whoever (or whatever) he was was important enough to justify abandoning a high priority mission like that.

Part of him _almost_ felt bad for Qrow.

Almost.

Torchwick turned around, facing Neo, her eyes obviously downcast in a worrying look.

"Don't worry - this won't put a damper in our plans."

She seemed unconvinced, looking off in the distance, towards nothing in particulate.

"Oh come on Neo, when have I ever fucked us over? Come on - _trust_ me on this. I know what I'm doing."

He got out of his chair, walking towards her. He grabbed hold of her soft chin, turning her head towards him. They were making eye contact now. It was moments like this that made the both of them realize how different they truly were. Roman's red hair clashed widely with the cool pink and brown colors of Neo's, his height dwarfed her own by a good foot and a half, and she could kick his ass a million times over.

And that was just the physical differences. Personality wise, they should have fucking hated each other.

Roman's boisterous personality, and love of the spectacle, clashed with her preference of the sidelines ("Easier to kick someone's ass that way," she once wrote to him) _should_ have made them at odds over the nature of their relationship. Neo _should_ have resented him for his slimy, charismatic nature.

And yet, despite it all, they were still here.

Alive.

As friends.

If Roman was more superstitious, he would have said it was a magical twist of fate that he met her. The ultimate culmination of thousands of different, tiny factors, built over the course of many years - even decades - that lead them to that meeting.

But he wasn't, so he just chalked it up to luck.

" _Trust me_ , Neo. I know what I'm doing."

He looked in her dead in the eyes.

Neo huffed, pouting her cheeks together.

"Heh, nothing wrong in admitting when you're completely and utterly in the wrong about something, Neo. Especially from someone as _magnificent_ as me."

She pushed him back, a large smile on her face.

"Awww, you little mute nerd - do that again I'll give you a wedgie!"

She pointed at the paper.

"Oh, this?"

He grabbed it off his little desk, crumpled it up, and threw it in the trash.

"What they don't know won't hurt them. But it _will_ help us," he said, winking and smiling.

Neo's smile grew large after he said that.

"Now, to secure our stash. I got some crushed Dust from a junkie - best to make sure none of those animals get into it. You know how they can be…."

* * *

 **PERSON OF INTEREST FILE # 92103**

 **SOCIETY OF PEACE AND FREEDOM**

 **LEGAL NAME:** Unknown.

 **ALIAS:** Kaneki, Ken

 **THREAT LEVEL:** Unknown, possibly BLACK-ALPHA threat

 **ENGAGEMENT:** Avoid direct engagement. Only strike teams consisting of more than nine huntsmen are allowed to engage at one time without permission of the Security Council.

 **POWERS:** Unknown. Believed similar capability of Grimm, similar to PERSON OF INTEREST FILE #001 ("Salem"). Certain abilities seem different, as it does not seem capable of controlling Grimm.

 **MOTIVE:** Unknown, possibly similar to PERSON OF INTEREST FILE #001 ("Salem"). Possibly based on primitive desire and satisfaction from human consumption.

 **HISTORY:**

 **[REDACTED]:** Huntsmen Smo and Vaja witness Subject attacking Ursa Grimm near Subject Site #128 ("Mountain Glenn"). Motive unclear, but believed to be attempting to consume undigested corpse of Huntsmen inside. Huntsmen Smo and Vaja did not engage.

 **[REDACTED]:** Interaction with Huntsmen-in-Training (HT) Cardin Winchester. Specific details unknown. Witness testimony suggests limited interaction. Hypothesized interaction with Winchester in past.


	10. Chapter 10

" _Sweetie - sweetie - sweetie, please, please - please, listen to mommy - listen to mommy, okay?"_

 _The young child was shivering. That was to be expected, of course - it was cold, and they weren't in any shelter. They had been running for many nights now and only nine shells, but they kept coming. Those things. Those Demons - the Demons of Yore, the Demons of the Outer World. Beyond the Wall - the Great and Holy Wall that had kept their family and their family's family safe for a generation._

 _Why did she have to be so stupid?_

 _Why did she think of ignoring her ancestors, and all common sense, and leave the safety of the Walls?_

 _The Walls that had kept humanity safe from those Demons._

 _But it was a lucrative offer, especially for someone like her. She was a school teacher by trade but weapon's smith by passion. She had done some stuff here and there for the Huntsmen, but nothing like what the man offered. The white haired man - Ozpin, his name was? - offered her thirty thousand yen a year for the opportunity of being the Head of the Vale National Weaponry Manufacturing Plant. That was enough - more than enough for her and her boy._

 _Her sweet and precious boy._

 _But it all went bad. It all went horribly, horribly bad._

 _Why did this have to happen?_

 _She and her son were lucky. So very, very lucky. If you could even call this that._

 _They were on the surface at the time, visiting the playground. It wasn't healthy for a boy that young to be underground for so long, and she knew she had to foster a strong and healthy boy. He had to be. He wouldn't survive in the world alone. And she knew he'd be alone soon. Parents like her didn't live long. Children had to grow up fast. It was a curse, her father said. A curse that had plagued the Taylor family for generations and generations - the reason was never elaborated on. But it didn't matter. She needed to toughen him up. Tough him before the world did._

 _She was thankful for that._

 _The monsters got past the walls, somehow. They weren't strong like the Wall of Vale, but they should have lasted longer. The guards must have screwed up or something._

 _Or foul play._

 _Foul play was almost always the reason why._

 _But that didn't matter now. All that mattered now was her and the boy. Running from the Demons._

 _And they were catching up._

 _The boy looked back up at her, tears streaming down his face. A bowie knife - a memento from his father, who died when he was five - was being gripped in his right hand. It was violently shaking, as he was trying his best to hold back the tears._

" _Sweetie - sweetie please, don't cry," she said, trying her best to not cry herself, "it's - it's gonna be okay. You just gotta - you just gotta get to the Walls. Just keep - keep going north, okay? Just keep going north - keep going nothing, and you'll be fine."_

" _Now," she said, taking a deep breathe, holding onto the shotgun in her hand ever tight, lifting it up and cocking the pump, "Mommy's gonna go for now, okay? Mommy's gonna - gonna protect you, okay?"_

" _B-B-But w-w-what i-if y-you die?"_

 _The boy's voice was trembling._

" _I ain't gonna die, okay? I ain't gonna die. I ain't gonna die, okay? I - I love you, okay?"_

" _W-W-What if I don't see you -" deep breathe - "you again?"_

 _She smiled through the obvious tears building up in her eyes, and dug inside her pocket for the scroll she always carried around. It was her phone, the first and only one she ever had in life. Her family was too poor to ever have it, and instead had phone lines and wired ones that plugged into the walls. Her husband had one before he died, but she pawned it off to pay the bills._

 _She placed it into his hand, cupping it while trying to put on a brave smile._

" _Just talk into this, okay? Just go - go into contacts, and press mommy. And. And. Just talk to me, okay? I. I'll always listen."_

" _M-M-Mommy?"_

" _Yes sweetie?"_

" _D-D-Don't die - I-I love you."_

" _I love you too," she said, pulling him into a warm embrace, the tears finally rolling down both their faces._

" _Now run."_

* * *

"Kaneki?"

Kaneki stopped reading from the history book, looking over at Charlie, who stopped scribbling on a notepad. It contained about a dozen addresses, and Kaneki was going to go to them by the end of the week, on friday. He wanted to go today, but Charlie insisted friday. He wasn't sure, but it was best to indulge him at this point. He was basically intruding on his living room, for God's sake.

"Yes, Charlie?"

"Have you ever killed someone?"

"Hmm."

Kaneki wasn't sure why he responded that way. It wasn't exactly the type of response someone should have to being asked if they had ever killed someone before. But it was how he felt - hmm. Was he just supposed to lie?

Charlie looked away from Kaneki, solumenly laughing while continuing to write in the notepad.

"I'll take that as a yes then, hehe."

A momentary, awkward silence formed between them as Kaneki turned his attention back to his book.

"How did it feel?"

"What feel?"

"You know. The murder?"

"It's not murder if it's in self-defense."

"So, what did the guy do?"

Kaneki sighed, thinking of what to exactly say. How much information should he give out?

"Why are you asking about this?"

"Well," he began, looking away from Kaneki, "I understand that."

He seemed to hesitate - as if a bulwark had been built between him and his vocal cords, and they just wouldn't push those words out, no matter how hard he tried, before rapidly spitting them out, sometimes fumbling over his own words.

"I understand that before we're done with this, I'm. I'm going to get someone killed. Someone. Someone is going to die directly due to my actions. I'm going. I'm going to get someone killed. Indirectly or indirectly, our intervention - my intervention - will kill them. I'm. I'm going to become a murderer."

Had.

Had he become self-aware?

"And. And. I just want to know what it feels like. Before."

"Before you go through with it."

"Y-Yeah, before I go through with it."

A silence formed between them. One that was much thicker and denser than any previous one.

Kaneki understood. Understood very, very clearly what he was attempting to say. It was unintentional, but very clear.

Charlie had become self-aware of what he could do.

And Charlie was comfortable with that.

Comfortable with the people he was going to hurt.

Comfortable with the lives he's going to take.

Comfortable with the death he was going to inflict.

All for a high. A stupid fucking high.

You piece of shit.

You absolute piece of shit.

Have you no shame?

"So, um," Charlie began, awkwardly trying to get the conversation going his way again, "how did it feel?"

"I felt nothing."

"O-Oh - w-why's that?"

"They were murderers."

"H-How d-did you k-know?"

"They killed people for sport. They threw people into pins and put up bets for who was going to kill who. And afterwards they'd eat. Eat like kings, pretending they're something they weren't. Pretending they were high-class, sophisticated socialites. They were nothing more than weeds. Bad apples. Worms that needed to be removed. A threat. I eliminated a threat. That's all they were to me, Charlie. A threat to me and my friends."

Charlie's face went pale, obviously regretting asking the question. His hands were sweaty and he placed the pencil down, intently focusing on Kaneki's story and description of the murder of the Ghoul Restaurant Goers - but Kaneki never used that term. So he bent the story here and there to make things fit with this reality, but kept the sentiment and generalities the same. He deserved to hear this story, at the very least.

"They were monsters. They killed for fun. Killed for entertainment. They were sick and twisted people."

"H-How d-did you k-k-kill them?"

"I ripped them apart."

* * *

 _The mother pulled back on the pump, a shell flying through the air, steam surrounding it before finally cooling off in the cold night. The beast's skull fractured, and what she presumed was it's "Brain" (if it could even be called that) splattered across the wide open field before flying past her, occasionally tossing and turning before evaporating into nothing._

 _Four._

 _That's how many shots she had left._

" _Come at me you cocksuckers! Come at me! Come out at me - you think that's all I got you fucking bastards?!"_

 _She turned out, trying to keep a good sight on her environment, the red eyes of her opponents glowing in the darkness._

 _They were smart, those bastards. It was a open field, with no chance of stealth. If they wanted to kill her, they'd need to charge her. They weren't that stupid. She knew they, on some level, had a survival instinct. There was something in their behavior, their actions, that made them seem more intelligent than what the authorities claimed they were._

 _But that wasn't going to happen._

 _Because she was smarter._

 _If only she could make it to daylight. At daylight she'd make a run for it. They wouldn't be able to hid as easily._

 _Ea-_

 _Dark figure. Fast. Large. Two of them, probably - two for one, she thought. Needed to make this count._

 _She aimed her shotgun at the two black figures running towards her - or were they three?_

 _She aimed down the sights, hoping to take all three of them down - like shooting fish in a barrel._

 _She pressed down on the trigger, feeling the kickback hit her with the force of a punch to the gut._

 _All three came tumbling down - like the giant in that old story her father used to tell her before she went to bed._

 _She pulled back down on the shotgun, the shell popping out, steam surrounding it. She pulled the pump upwards before the shell even reached the ground._

 __" _I can do this all night, big boys! Give me your best shot!"_

* * *

"Y-You sound like you d-did this often."

"I did."

"H-How many t-times?"

"I don't know. Couple dozens. They all got what they deserved."

"D-Do you n-not feel r-regret?"

"No."

"D-Do y-you w-wish y-you did?"

Kaneki opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. It wasn't a question he thought could be asked.

He thought about who he was before. Back when he was a semi-normal teenager. Sure, he had to eat human flesh to survive, and he was a victim of a (seemingly) freak medical accident, but things were stable. He was still Kaneki. He was still himself.

Than Yamoria entered in like a hurricane.

He taught him lessons. Many, many lessons. His most important being learning how to make a decision. Learning how to choose a path instead of choosing an unobtainable middle ground.

He took that one to heart.

The middle ground, if there existed one, was gone. Kaneki died.

No. Not died.

Went dormant.

And sometimes, he'd come out.

But rarely.

Now, the person he was now - he wasn't exactly sure what to call himself - had taken control. Powerful, cunning. Ruthless. Indifferent to the lives of everyone else beside the ones close to him.

And even that was a line that became blurry.

 _Banjo_.

And then Anteiku.

He thought about Anteiku.

Everyone.

Everyone there. He went away on a stupid mission and amounted to nothing, wasted so much time and resources and contacts and everything over something that amounted to basically nothing - basic information from the Doctor, and what did that do? It didn't change the world. It certainly didn't change his ghoul status. The only thing it accomplished was being put on the CCG's hit list, and potentially contributing to Anteiku's downfall.

Would feeling bad have stopped all that? Made him think twice about what he was doing?

Would it have?

"Yeah," Kaneki replied, a tinge of sadness filling his voice, "yeah. I wish I did."

* * *

 _The boy ran._

 _And ran._

 _And ran._

 _And ran._

 _He was good at that. He was extremely good at that, at the very least. If he couldn't be good at anything that actually mattered, he could at least be good at running._

 _The gun shots stopped after the ninth blast, even though he knew that mommy had at least ten rounds. He knew that because she taught him to always count your bullets - and to always leave one bullet._

 _Always leave one._

 _She showed him how to put the gun in his mouth. She unloaded it and taught him the best angle to pull the trigger from, to make sure that you died on the first one._

" _Sweetie," She said, putting the barrel of the shotgun against the roof of her mouth, "yuh dow at eike dis, awnd yaw uhll de trigger."_

 _She hoped that he would never have to do that. She promised herself that her baby boy would never die like that. Never die killing himself. She'd do it instead. He deserved to die hopeful. She lied about leaving a bullet for herself - she would rather her son take it. It was a mercy, really._

 _But there was no mercy out here._

 _No more._

 _He kept running through the darkness, hoping and praying to the Gods that he could make it north. If he could only do that, he could be safe._

 _And then he could be with mommy again._

* * *

Kaneki walked out onto the porch of the apartment, looking over the afternoon skyline of Vale. He needed some fresh air - the apartment was getting stuffy. Plus, he'd rather not have to lay in that bed for one more second. A bed could only be laid in for so long before it just became unbearable.

The city looked so different from Tokyo.

Tokyo was bright, tall, and loud. Very loud. And compact. It was like a anthill, in a way. Stuffed stacked ontop of stuff stacked on top of even more stuff. Expansion underneath and above and in all directions - the city authorities tried every possible manner to use the space as efficiently as possible (as efficiently as a bureaucracy could be, at any rate). Here, things were spacious, and always felt bigger than they really were. It felt (and looked) like an American city.

Thankfully, he wasn't in America.

He kept thinking over him and Charlie's conversation. Over the answer he gave.

Did he really feel bad?

Did he really wish he regretted the things he did?

Or did he only regret the consequences?

He wish he knew the answer to that.

He really did.

But that was the past. He couldn't think of that now. He just had to get home now.

But how?

Could he even get home?

Probably not.

Maybe this is a sign. From God or Devil or any trickster god or goddess that seeked to punish him for his hubris. What greater punishment than to be removed from the only family you ever loved, one that you spent months protecting, all for them to possibly be dead or worse?

Maybe this doesn't matter anymore.

Maybe he should just let go.

He sighed, leaning over the handrails and looking downward.

An empty alleyway.

He could jump.

It was a pretty big fall.

If he jumped, he probably die. Possibly on impact. Even in his world, ghouls could die from high impact, especially on concrete. As long as he didn't use his kagune, he could just jump.

Just jump off, like a bird.

It wouldn't have been so bad, really.

Maybe it was his true punishment, and this world was just a facilitation of that. Maybe this was what he deserved after all. For all the things he did. For all the people he had killed. For all getting all his friends killed.

Death was just another door. Another door he could step through. Anoth-

"Kaneki?"

Kaneki quickly turned his head around, seeing Charlie.

"What're you doing?"

"Nothing," he said, looking away and stepping back from the handrail. He noticed that his hands were now covered in sweat, and small imprints had begun to develop around his flesh from the indentions in the metal.

* * *

 _He continued walking._

 _It had been two days of continuous walking._

 _The boy had walked so much the souls of his shoes started to peel, and his socks clung to his skin and it felt so freaking uncomfortable, and he was blistering from the heat and the sun and he hadn't seen a tree in over a day either._

 _He was walking in endless fields now._

 _Endless green fields._

 _Was this even north?_

 _He didn't know._

 _He didn't freaking know._

 _All he knew was is that his mother had told him to go this way._

 _He just wanted to sleep. He just wanted a warm bed and a good meal and some water or at the very least some shade cause holy crap did it suck to be out here._

 _He occasionally tried talking to mom, but she never picked up._

 _It was only him now._

 _Him and the endless field._

 _He missed mommy._

 _But he kept walking._

 _And walking._

 _And walking._

 _And walking._

 _Until he found a shack._

 _It was old, worn down, nearly collapsed. It was made from metal and wood and occasional pieces of plastic, but he didn't care, he was just glad to be out of the sun for a couple minutes._

 _He slept undisturbed for fifteen hours and thirty two minutes._

* * *

Charlie knew he should ask Kaneki what that was about, but for now, he knew it was better to not question it. It was probably nothing anyway. Besides, even if it was, he wouldn't do it. He knew he would. He wouldn't just bail out on someone like that.

Would he?

He shoved that thought out of his mind, turning his mind to the task at hand. He was almost done with the addresses. He even gave some notes on what to do if they encountered this person or group, just to make sure Kaneki wouldn't go guns blazing.

He then heard a ringing at the door.

Charlie stopped writing.

It took him a moment to register the noise. It had been a long time since he actually heard someone use the doorbell of his house. It was either a knock or scream but never a ring.

Charlie felt uneasy.

Then another ring at the door.

Charlie pushed back his chair, cracking his neck and fingers and back and everywhere else that had the capacity to have a crack, and began to walk over to the door.

He unlocked the latch, and opened it up.

He saw two figures, two strangers.

"Hello," one began, his stature imposing but respectful, "we're with the Vale Huntsmen Academy, would you please allow us to step inside?"


	11. INTERLUDE I

COUNCIL OF VALE

SPECIAL REPORT ON THE INCIDENT AT SECTOR 2 ("Mountain Glenn")

XX/XX/XX

K. CYRUS, B. DODGER, I. MALACH

It is in the professional opinion of this Body, hereby employed and entrusted by the People of Vale and the Council of Vale, representing the Popular Will of the Country, that Merlot Industries and its Subsidiaries are responsible for the destruction of, and subsequent abandonment of, Sector 2 (hereby referred to as "Mountain Glenn"). This 421 page report contains various citing of internal company memoranda, correspondences between management and employee alike, and research that lead to the eventual destruction of Mountain Glenn as a habitable zone for The People of Vale at large….

* * *

 _Marcus_

 _I don't give a damn about your profit margins. What you (and be extension, 'we') did at Mountain Glenn was a crime against humanity. If we confess, together, and talk about what we did, we can be spared the death penalty. We can finally show the Council, and the world, that we're willing to improve. Willing to give back for all the things we took. But that isn't going to fucking happen unless we (not you or me, WE) confess. I don't want to die on this hill of bones we made for ourselves._

 _Jon_

* * *

PAGE 23

…..internal memoranda in the management of Merlot Industries suggests a complete indifference towards the safety of Mountain Glenn, best displayed by the internal private messaging system of Merlot Industries between then CEO Marcus Chro and Board Member [REDACTED]:

" _...Grimm research is a highly profitable (and highly expensive) field of research for the company at this point in time, and it is understand that you regard such expeditions into this unstable market unwise, considering the circumstances. However, these worries are unfounded, especially with our researchers having determined a cheap and effective way of capturing Grimm without the need of specialized and private market Huntsmen… if implemented correctly, the technique could be perfected, increasing profit margins with minimal loss of life…"_

This "technique" alluded to involved amplifying the negative emotions of Mountain Glenn through the use of popular media, false reports of increased Grimm attacks on human populations, and the destabilization of economic services in the area….

* * *

 _Jon_

 _I don't trust the Council to not give us the death penalty. Besides, you saw the trial back there. The judge violated every single standard of jurisprudence imaginable, and no one even blinked an eye. Our lawyer can overturn this, possibly invalidate the outcome of the trial. If so, we can walk like free men. I don't trust these Fanus hating fucks to give us a fair trial. Especially to privileged ones, like me. They'd rather see me shot than walk free. If I confess, I'll just be a dead man walking at that point._

 _Marcus_

* * *

PAGE 54

The exact research done by the Merlot corporation on captured Grimm is currently unknown, but from what we can gather, the research involved their metaphysical and biological properties on mankind, most likely for some form of war related purpose….

From what little information that can be gleaned from research notes and reports to higher management, they were concluding some connection between the Grimm's biological process and its powers….possibly to create a similar ability in mankind….whether this potential service was to be sold to the military apparatus of the countries or to private contractors and corporations is currently unknown….

….the few conclusions this investigative body has determined is that Merlot Industries discovered a specific biological function that both motivated and gave power to the Grimm….

* * *

 _Marcus_

 _It's not about walking free. We DON'T deserve to walk free for what we did. For what we allowed OUR company to do in Glenn. By not going forward, by not showing everything we did to the proper authorities, we are allowing something like this to happen in the future. Do you want that on your conscience, Marcus? Do you want the thought of innocent men, women, and children dying because we cared more about our luxury and comfort over the lives of our fellow citizen? If so, I'll go forward myself, and while you rot in a jail cell somewhere, I'll be helping the Vale Council prevent something like this from EVER happening again. I'm giving you an opportunity to IMPROVE, to HELP, and REBUILD, and you would rather think of how to get out of this shitty situation. The only way we're getting out of this is by accepting our culpability in this shitstorm. Deal with it. Be a fucking man and grow a pair, and accept responsibility for once in your goddamn life._

 _Jon_

* * *

PAGE 219

….Grimm research, while being the majority of the research at the then primary facility of Merlot Industries, was not the only research occuring there. However, most of this tertiary research was supplemental to the main focus. In the months before the fall of Mountain Glenn, a high quantity of electrical and Dust related technology was being transported to the Mountain Glenn facility. This technology is believed to be related to some form of space-time tampering, but this purely conjecture based off this investigative body's opinion, taking into account multiple different opinions from the scientific community….

* * *

 **INTERVIEW LOG**

 **INTERVIEWER:** Council Member Ozpin

 **INTERVIEWEE:** Jonathan Baza

 **DATE:** XX/XX/XX

 **BEGIN LOG**

 **INTERVIEWER:** Tell me what happened at Mountain Glenn.

 **INTERVIEWEE:** How far back?

 **INTERVIEWER:** Preferably the day it happened.

 **INTERVIEWEE:** I got to work at 9:00 AM - I'm apart of the main guard force for floors A-C at Merlot Research and Development Center. Everything was normal up until around twelve o'clock, when I heard this loud bang coming from beneath me. I our security team got internal emails and calls from those on floors F-G, the research area. Scientists were coming in in droves, but they said the others were trapped along with the big project the company was developing. It was hard to know what exactly was going on, but from what we could gather, something blew up. At first we thought it was just a bunch of of injuries - burns, shrapnel, the works. My grandfather was a medic during the Great War, and he used to tell me stories of the things he'd see.

 **INTERVIEWER:** Could you stick to what you saw, sir?

 **INTERVIEWEE:** Oh, yes, sorry. My squad - Squad Z, if you needed to know, for the record - was one of the first to go elevator was busted, probably damaged in the explosion, so we went by stairs. As we went down, I smelled…..I smelled something _awful_.

 **INTERVIEWER:** Describe it.

 **INTERVIEWEE:** I. You ever see a rotting animal? I mean, really rotting? Like, flies swarming around the carcass rotting, with its skull and feet a combination of flesh and white bone? That's what it smelled like in those stairs. Harry - our main technical support - threw up in the corner. I felt like I was gonna pass out from the stench alone, and. Fuck, man. I felt high. Like I was standing off a ledge and wobbling. My hands were shaking, too. I just. I just.

 _SEVEN SECOND PAUSE  
_  
 **INTERVIEWER:** Just what?

 **INTERVIEWEE:** I felt like I was somewhere I really shouldn't have been. You ever walk into a town, and everyone around you looks at you like an outsider? That was how I felt then. I felt wrong there. Unwelcomed. Except. Except it wasn't really that? It wasn't like that at all, but like….like I was inside somewhere that didn't belong to me anymore. Something that had at once belonged to me and my species, but now belong to. To _them_.

 **INTERVIEWER:** Did you know what was happening in the lower levels when you were sent down?

 **INTERVIEWEE:** No, but at this point, I think I knew something was terribly wrong. We opened up a box, and it wasn't going to go back to normal anymore. We got to those floors, despite the….circumstances. I wish we didn't. We should have locked the doors and gotten out when we had the chance.

 **INTERVIEWER:** When you got down there, what did you see?

 **INTERVIEWEE:** Destroyed lab equipment and screaming. No bodies, or anything. We went in deeper, trying to find the rest of the scientists. I remember what my boss said about scenarios like this. For every egg-head dead on our watch, 10% of the department's funding is deducted for that month over damages. Of course, I think he was fucking with us, but I didn't want to test that. But something inside of me told me that wasn't going to matter. No, not anymore. Again, I felt foreign. Mind if I smoke?

 **INTERVIEWER:** Go ahead.

 _INTERVIEWEE TAKES OUT CIGARETTE, LIGHTS IT WITH LIGHTER, INHALES, EXHALES  
_  
 **INTERVIEWEE:** Thanks. Smoking helps me….

 _INTERVIEWEE TRAILS OFF, LOOKING OFF TOWARDS CORNER  
_  
 **INTERVIEWEE:** ….helps me relax.

 **INTERVIEWER:** Continue please.

 **INTERVIEWEE:** My squad got to the far northern side of the level. That was where the screaming was coming from. When we got there, a giant pile of destroyed rubble lay in its place. It was rumbling slightly, but not enough to make a difference. Their screams were still muffled, but I knew that type of screaming. Something. Something was on the other side. With them. My team began pulling the rubble out, hoping to do something, anything, to get them out. After about five minutes, however, I heard growling, followed by more screaming.

 _INTERVIEWEE STOPS, TAKES DRAG, CONTINUES_

 **INTERVIEWEE** : Then it stopped.

 **INTERVIEWER:** It….stopped?

 **INTERVIEWEE:** Yes. It just. Stopped. And then the black fluids began to ooze between the cracks in the rubble.

* * *

PAGE 220

….whatever device that was being built at the primary Merlot Industries facility is believed, by a large quantity of experts, to be responsible for the large portion of Grimm that overran Mountain Glenn. It is believed that this device was responsible for forming a Grimm breeding pit. The unarmed population of the lower levels of Merlot Industries laid the groundwork for a healthy first generation of Grimm in Mountain Glenn….

* * *

 **INTERNAL SERVICES FOR MERLOT INDUSTRIES**

 **TO:** EMPLOYEES OF MERLOT INDUSTRIES

 **FROM:** JACKSON TAYLOR

 **DATE:** XX/XX/XX

 **SUBJECT:** HELP

HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP DEVICE BROKE, GRIMM SPAWNING EXPONENTIALLY, TRAPPED, WE'RE GOING TO DIE, HELP HELP HELP PLEASE WE'RE GOING TO DIE

 **TO:** Cyan Nell

 **FROM:** Sapphire Harl

 **DATE:** XX/XX/XX

 **SUBJECT:** I love you

I love you cyan. I know you knew that already, but i think you deserve to hear this personally. I'm going to die down here. We're trapped and the grimm babys are starting to get hungry. Ive loved you for as long as ive known you. I just wish i could have told you earlier because now ill never be able to tell you to yor face how much i love you and think about holding you and kissing you and making you feel like the most important person in the world i love you i love you so muchand im sorry for being such a coward as to not being able to tel lyou to your face im sorry i love you please run run run away as far as poosible from glenn now grimm are everywhere and theyre going to ge out of here please get in the fastest train to vale. Take anything out of my apartment, the code is 2142 room number 303. Take kenny with you, he's a good boy.

I love you so much,

Sapphire

P.s yes those love letters were mine

 **TO:** Lye Bluebeard

 **FROM:** Kobi Bluebeard

 **DATE:** XX/XX/XX

 **SUBJECT:** This is it

This is it, little bro. The big one. The thing that was finally going to kill me. I'm beneath my desk now, a shotgun in hand, waiting for the grimm to start attacking. Get out while you can, it ain't safe here. If they stop you, don't, just keep running as far as you can. Forget our house, just get your girl and get the hell out of here. I can hear them right now. They're starting to get hungry. Don't worry, if push comes to shove, your big bro will make sure that no one down here suffers. I have enough bullets.

I love you. I know I don't make that known often, but, I love you. You were the best brother a man could ask for. Sure, you were a dick about Susan, but I guess a woman like her would make any man do that. Just don't think ill of me, please?

Tell mom and dad I died doing something heroic, like blasting grimm with dual machine guns, or saving a family from an ursa charging them.

Love ya, Kobi

P.s if you're gonna go to our apartment, go into my room and you'll find a safe. Code's 2134. My entire life savings. Use it well, Lye.

 **TO:** Slate Lum

 **FROM:** Gole Bress

 **DATE:** XX/XX/XX

 **SUBJECT:** dead man walking

I'm a dead man walking. Get your gun and get your family out of here. The railways should get you out safe. You saved me and my family once before, and it's only fair to return the favor. Tell Judy and Mac I loved them, and that I'm sorry daddy couldn't make it. Tell them he died doing something good for mankind.

 **TO:** Sky

 **FROM:** london bridge is falling down

 **DATE:** XX/XX/XX

 **SUBJECT:** london bridge is falling down

london bridge is falling down

falling down

falling down

london bridge is falling down

my fair lady

 **TO:** Fechine Blumwood

 **FROM:** Corbin Winchester

 **DATE:** XX/XX/XX

 **SUBJECT:** help

Fechine, I know I own you so much for all that you've done for me over the years, but please, as a final goodbye wish, please, deliver this message to my family. As much as I hate them, they deserve to know this before I die.

Dad: I've hated you. But despite that, I'm glad you're happier with a better heir to the Winchester blood line. I'm not a noble, I'm a republican by heart, it just isn't in my character. I know you'll hate me and spit on my grave, but I think it's only fair to tell you thank you for allowing me to gracefully leave the family.

Mom: Thanks for being there when I needed you, and for feeding me and clothing me and helping me on school projects. I'm sorry I couldn't be the son you wanted me to be, but I hope that I made you happy with something here. I'd like to think my work here at Merlot improved humanity for the better, even if my death says the opposite.

Cardin: Little brother, I love you, even if I could never get close enough to tell you that. When you're eventually given the official title of prince by your father, make the most of it. Don't go around hunting after glory, or money. Settle down. Marry, have children. Give to charity. Live humbly. Respect and love everyone equally, even if you don't like them.

Fechine: Thanks for being there man. I know I could be a real dick, but I want you to know how much I truly do (or did) care for you. I'm sure my dad would reward you for this. Now please, get the hell out of Mountain Glenn. Now.

* * *

PAGE 351

...the exact details regarding the fate of the Merlot Industries is unknown, but, what is known, is that after the evacuation of the surviving members of Mountain Glenn, the building collapsed, the only thing remaining being a Grimm breeding pit….however, this pit and its exact abilities seem generally anomalous in comparison to other pits of its nature….Grimm here tend to be more violent, and hunt out of hunger rather than a general desire for misfortune….whether this is a tactic or genuinely new desire for human flesh is unknown….

* * *

 _The man and woman sat inside the room of the Ghost Town walking, hundreds and hundreds of feet beneath the surface, and even further beneath the streets and buildings, housing the surviving members of mankind._

 _The man and woman held each other. Hours prior, they hated each other, but now they held each other, for they knew no one else would._

 _They hid from the creatures of pure blackness, the familiar bone armor undeveloped and non-existent. The man and woman prayed to Gods they did not believe in, and they hoped for safety that would never come._

 _They looked down the hallway, to the bringer of their destruction. A portal, if such a work could be used scientifically, had developed. Reality became unstable. The threads of atoms and matter becoming undone, turning into a mess of strings and cloth with no uniformity._

 _Reality itself was becoming black. No, not black. Nothing. Nothing was the true description of what was happening._

 _The man and woman embraced one another. Not because they loved each other, but because they knew what it was like to suffer alone._

 _They did not die when the Nothing embraced them._

 _They felt hungry._

 _A type of hungry that had never been felt before by anything else in existence in their world._

 _The hunger of a Ghoul._

 _What became of the man and woman remains unknown._

* * *

WE OF THE HIGH COURT OF VALE

HEREBY DECLARE THAT

Marcus Bloodwater

CEO OF MERLOT INDUSTRIES

IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE COMMUNITY OF MOUNTAIN GLENN

HIS PUNISHMENT FOR THIS EXTRAORDINARY CRIME IS

DEATH

* * *

 _A man - a Fanus, to be specific - sat in his cell, thinking. Thinking about the things he had done._

 _He thought about another man, Jon. Jon was a friend. Thought best of him. Thought about others before himself._

 _He didn't deserve someone like that in his life._

 _He had finished his final meal. A meal of eggs and bacon. The same type of food his mother used to cook for him when she was alive._

 _He didn't deserve someone like that in his life._

 _The jailer clinked against the cell door._

 _It was time._

 _The man sat up, hoping to face death penalty with dignity. Like his father did when the men hung him for being in the wrong place at the wrong time._

 _He didn't deserve someone like that in his life._

 _He was lead down the corridor, into a long hallway type area, with a single pole in the middle._

 _He was sat down there, his hands and feet bound and his eyes covered._

 _He didn't deserve to die like this._

 _No._

 _He deserved much worse._

 _The last thing he could hear was the sound of a gun being cocked, followed by a loud bang._

 _He didn't even feel anything._

 _He deserved this, at the very least._


	12. Chapter 11

_For fifteen hours and thirty two minutes, the boy slept, completely undisturbed._

 _Then the man arrived._

 _The man – a young huntsmen, having just graduated from the Vale Huntsmen Academy after many years of training. Independent and resourceful, he was on a mission to take care of a local infestation problem._

 _He wished to ask for a night of rest at the place, believing it occupied. When the first knock didn't work, he tried a second, a third, and a fourth._

 _Then the small child opened the door, his hands still clutching the phone._

 _"Hello," said the man, scratching at his developing chin stubble._

" _H-Hello," said the boy._

" _Are your parents home?"_

 _"M-My m-mommy – s-she w-won't c-call back. I hid here f-from – f-from the monsters."_

 _"Monsters? Where are you from?"_

 _"Mountain – Mountain Glenn."_

 _The man strained to keep a calm face at the mention of those words._

" _Maybe I can find your mother – what's your name?"_

 _"C-Charlie."_

 _"Nice to meet you Charlie," said the man, his black hair swaying back and forth in the cool summer breeze, "my name is Qrow."_

* * *

Charlie felt something within him scream upon those words leaving the mouth of the two huntsmen. It was a primal fear, a fear developed from thousands of years of evolution among his species. A fear that had been developed for the necessity of human survival among Grimm and animal-kind alike.

This fear spoke, not into his ear or brain or even soul, but something deeper. Something even deeper, something restrained by every ounce of human social rearing and rationality. Something that was chained to the floor, bleeding, caged but still well and alive. It spoke into this creature, and said but one word.

 _Run._

"Ah, well, um, yes! Yes huntsmen – could you, um, give me a moment?"

They looked at one another, silently communicating, before looking back at Charlie.

"You may. But don't take too long, we're kinda in a hurry."

"O-Oh yes, Mr. Huntsmen, it won't take long."

He closed the door, attempting to restrain every single fiber of his being to not slam the door, silently locking it, before rushing into the living room. Kaneki was on the bed, flipping through a history book of some sort.

"Kaneki!" he whispered, "we have to go, right fucking now!"

Kaneki looked up from his book, momentarily startled before narrowing his brow.

"What?"

"Sssh, shut your fucking mouth – we have two cops right outside that fucking door and we only got two minutes at best so pack whatever shit you can find into one of your bags right now!" he scream whispered, trying his best to not pass out.

Charlie quickly left the living room, running over to his room and grabbing everything he could find.

God, fuck, he felt sick. He felt like he was going to throw up all over the place. His breathing didn't help matters. He was hyperventilating. His chest felt like it was cycling through oxygen and carbon like a revolving door. Goddamnit, why did it have to be him? Why him of all fucking people? And just when things were possibly going to fucking plan? Oh God, oh fuck, where was his gun. Where was his fucking gu- oh thank God!

He pulled out the small magnum from his sock drawer, the one his father had. It was the only thing he had to remember him by. His mother had put it into a bank or safe or some other shit like that, and had it delivered on his 18th birthday. He never thought about using it for anything other than dick measuring, but now that it came to defend himself, he thanked whatever Gods that may exist for this beautiful piece of human machinery.

He stuffed all the ammo he could into his pack, along with cloths and whatever money he had left. He walk-ran out of his room, and entered the living room. Kaneki was shoving a book inside one of the front pockets of his pack when Charlie entered.

"Time's up – we need to fucking go!" he said, still trying his best to scream whisper, but this time came out as a hoarse cry. God, he hoped they didn't hear. Please don't hear, please don't hear.

"Where are we going to go?!"

"I-I –"

Fuck.

Where would they go?

He didn't think this through. He didn't think this through at all. Goddamnit. Fuck. Shit piss fuck cock bitch WHORE!

He was so fucked. They'd come in and find all this shit packed, and then they'd ask to investigate further, and then further, and then further until they found his plans. Nothing relating to Dust of course, but they'd question the locations. Question the reasons for all these warehouses, question the connections, question why Charlie looked like a drug addled mess and why the white haired kid looked so fucking fore-

Foreign.

Yes yes that's it.

"We – we leave the country! Once we get the my stuff we'll leave the country – go to Mistral! We just gotta get this done. Get this done – get this done we'll be out, out. Out."

Upon repeating that last word, he felt his breathing begin to slightly calm itself, but the feeling of throwing up didn't lighten up. If anything, it only got worse.

The banging from the door wasn't helping matters much.

"Alright," replied Kaneki, surprisingly calm considering the circumstances.

"Okay, okay, okay – we can – we can get out through the balcony. Jump. We can jump. Onto the rooftops – you're strong right?"

Charlie walked to the door to the balcony, opening it up and rushing to the metal guards.

"Yes, I am – what of it?"

"How strong? Give me an example – say it damnit!"

"I could lift up a car if I wanted to."

"Okay, okay, okay good. Endurance?"

Charlie was looking down, trying his best to not let the situation and sight below force him to unleash his lunch, breakfast, and dinner onto an unsuspecting bystander.

"Run ten miles, if I pushed myself."

"Good, good," Charlie said, smiling a little bit at the next part.

"You aren't afraid of heights, right?"

* * *

Qrow took a drink from his flask of whiskey, the burning sensation slowly fading as it went down without a hitch.

"What's taking him so long?" asked Qrow, to no one in particular.

"He's probably just hiding his drugs or something," replied Vajo, trying to be funny.

"Well if he is, he's definitely taking his sweet time about it."

Silence.

Occasionally, Qrow would hear slight murmuring from the cracks in the walls. That was the best thing about old run down apartments like this. The walls could tell no lies.

"I think our friend's doing a little bit more than hiding in there."

Qrow raised his fist and banged on the door. Vajo slightly backed up, disturbed at the sudden force Qrow displayed.

"Don't break the door, Qrow."

"I might just do that if he doesn't open the door."

Qrow banged harder. This time, the door's wood could be heard budging against the hinges, the wear and tear of many years of opening and shutting and banging and slamming finally catching up with it.

"You have exactly ten seconds to open this door before I smash it down!" screamed Qrow, hoping that the sound of his voice alone would be enough to persuade the kid to come out.

"Ten."

Bang.

"Nine!"

Bang.

"Eight!"

Wood bending.

"Seven!"

Bang.

"Six five four!"

Bang, bang, bang.

"Three two one!"

Qrow stepped back before putting all power into a leg first thrust into the wooden door, the hinges ripping off the door frame and colliding with what seemed to be a living room wall.

"Come out with your hands up right now!" screamed Qrow, stepping inside the apartment quickly, looking around the place for the boy. He was quickly hit by the sudden smell of body oder and coffee, and the sight of dozens of articles of misplaced clothing and hundreds of empty soda and coffee cans, dishes, and general miscellaneous garbage.

To the immediate left there was a small hallway, and in front of him was the living room, with a makeshift couch bed in front of him.

"Vajo, take the left, I'll take the living room."

Qrow didn't even take a moment to see Vajo enter.

He stepped over the clothing, hoping to find a trace. He saw a computer and an unplugged TV. Scattered among the bed were several dozen books, magazines, and writing utensils.

Nothing here.

Qrow looked up to see the balcony, and the sight of two young men, one carrying the other, in a piggyback style ride.

* * *

"You got me right?"

"Yes, I do."

"You sure?"

"Yes I'm sure."

"H-Honestly I-I'm kinda nervous – maybe we can just, uh, climb down?"

"This was your idea."

"Yeah, but, you know, I-"

Charlie looked to his left, seeing a figure just beyond the door to the balcony, their eyes locking for one second.

It was the most pant-shittingly terrifying moments of his life.

God, he wished he was wearing brown pants.

"JUMP!"

Kaneki didn't need to look to know what Charlie was referencing.

For a split second, Kaneki felt like he was flying. The way the wind seemed to carry him through the air felt just like flying – or what he imagined to feel like flying.

This moment was short lived, however, as reality (or, more accurately, the ground) came into closer view.

Kaneki made the most of his chance, and prepared his landing strategy.

The way the building was located, jumping onto a rooftop would be nigh impossible with someone piggyback riding. However, in the twenty seconds Kaneki had to develop a strategy to get to the rooftop, he thought of an idea.

He remembered (as much as he could remember) when he fought that one investigator in Kanou's laboratory. His kakuja kept using the walls as a bouncing board, putting all his strength into jumping. Maybe he could replicate that. Of course, he couldn't use it, not in public anyway. But maybe his feet could act that way.

If he had a little help with his kagune.

He outstretched his feet towards the ground, and activated his kagune.

Two small tendrils exited his back – so small that, in the middle of the air, Charlie didn't even notice them, although that may have done more with the "screaming-in-absolute-terror" element than any amount of stealth on Kaneki's part.

The wrapped around his feet, acting as a protective shield of sorts, and began to mold itself into one thick jumping jack.

He prayed to whatever God that may exist that his idea would work.

As he came crashing down to the world, he positioned his feet together, and squeezed his feet as much as possible.

This was going to hurt.

Very fucking badly.

* * *

Qrow ran through the glass pan door to the balcony at the due jumped off the building, hoping to catch them before they made their suicidal jump onto the pavement.

Qrow checked the back alleyway before they got here – there's no way they could run away back there through the rooftops. The closest fire escape was angled in such a way as to make that maneuver impossible. They would have to be insane or suicidal to do something like that.

A sign of desperation.

As he got up, and looked down from the guard rails, he expected to hear a loud thud, followed by a howling scream or desperate crying. Usually, things like this didn't result in death, but it definitely didn't leave you in one piece.

By the time that occurred, he felt a breeze and a black figure flash past his face upwards, causing him to stumble back as he realized that the only thing that was on the concrete was crushed pavement.

* * *

Kaneki felt himself fly through the air again, but this time, against gravity instead of with it. It felt nice in a way. Kinda like pocking your head outside of a car while your driving.

Well, if there was a screaming man on your back, that is.

Kaneki felt the light rays of the sun cover his body as he exited the dark alleyway, and made contact with the adjacent building.

He didn't expect that to work. Like, at all.

He absorbed his kagune and began running, hoping to outrun the cops. Based off his understanding, they would have a good two to three minute lead on these guys. Maybe four if he was really lucky.

Of course that was assuming he body didn't give out of him until then.

He made a long jump across a gap before making a sharp right turn onto a commercial building, and then a left on top of another apartment building. Kaneki stopped for a moment, taking a moment to look down a dark alleyway.

"Where should we go?"

Charlie only wheezed in response.

 _Fuck._

Kaneki jumped down into the alleyway, taking a left, then a right, then another left, trying his best to lose whatever pursuers were chasing them.

He ran into a corner, momentarily stopped before activating his kagune, wrapping them around his legs, and jumping high above, finding himself on the roof of another apartment building.

"Industrial – industrial district…." said Charlie, trying his best not to faint/vomit ontop of Kaneki.

"Where?" Responded Kaneki, rapidly turning and twisting his body to get a good idea of where the hell he was.

"Near – near the water – oh God I'm gonna throw up – God I think I'm gonna throw up -"

Kaneki turned around one more time, taking a good long hard upon the shore of the city. In the distance, ever so slightly, he could make out a variety of warehouses and factories.

Kaneki morphed the kagune around his legs into something more lightweight and aerodynamic.

"Save your vomit for the water."

* * *

Qrow ran along the sidewalk, trying his best to make it to one of the roofs near this building, so as to keep up with the runners.

This was a strange one, to say the least. Yeah, he had runners in the past – what huntsmen didn't have a couple of runners here and there? – but rarely did he encounter a criminal with such strength and bravado to jump onto a building like that with nothing more than raw strength. Normally, these guys would rely on running up the buildings, or just jumping from the ground, but that? That was unique.

He made a turn into an alleyway, hoping to use the long winding labyrinth as a base to change. Hopefully, no one would notice.

He ran. He was always good at that, if nothing else.

He increased his speed, making sure to angle his body just right.

Changing was always weird for him.

It didn't hurt. At least, if one were to describe it in the traditional definition of pain and pleasure. It felt….uncomfortable, more than anything. Like being stuck between two people on a subway or a plane. Except it was exponential. Like an entire human body was being stuffed inside the body of a bird.

Of course, that's what it literally was, but Qrow liked to be a little bit more creative than that.

Sometimes.

He glided through the air, flying upwards and into the sky. Being a crow had it's advantages, even if it felt strange.

He looked upon the denizens of Vale, taking great pains to locate the pair of criminals. Car engines, conversations of teenagers near cafes, the swearing of construction workers, etc. – he could hear it all.

But he didn't want to hear all of that today.

He wanted to find them.

He zeroed in, trying to find something like them. Or looked like them on the rooftops.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

No- wait, he heard something.

Whispering.

Running.

Flesh ripping and morphing and reattaching itself together.

Was this what a Black-Alpha threat sounded like?

Qrow perched himself on a lamppost near the industrial area, waiting. Listening.

More whispering – clearer now, labored. Possible vomiting.

A voice. Yes. Clear. Very clear.

Cold. Very, very cold. Almost robotic.

" _Don't worry. Rest. I'll take first shift. I lost them."_

Important. Neutralize now? Possibly tired.

No. Outside of normal area. Not good. Very not good.

Qrow took off, taking notice of the number – A-12 – and flying off.

* * *

Ozpin leaned back in his chair, staring at Qrow.

"Are you sure you saw him run into this warehouse?"

"Yes, I did."

Ozpin nodded, taking a drink from his mug.

"What are we going to do about him?"

"I would prefer waiting until I receive word back from the Security Council – heading for a full frontal assault without permission would not be in our best interest."

Qrow nodded, trying his best to not insult the Security Council. As much as he hated their bureaucracy, mismanagement, and general incompetence, he knew they could be trusted to put humanity's best interest first.

Mostly.

"And me?"

"Keep an eye on him. It would be prudent to make sure he doesn't harm any civilians."

"Understood."

Qrow sat up from the seat, stretching out his back, and walking towards the elevator.

"And Qrow? Do make sure to not provoke him."

Qrow sighed.

"Understood."

"Good."

Ozpin swung backwards in his chair, looking back out onto the city of Vale.

He turned on the security footage one more time, making sure to analyze each and every frame, stopping to make sure what he was seeing was not a glitch of the film or eye but genuinely real.

At least they knew this was their guy.

"Do you really think it's another Salem?" Glynda said, speaking from the corner.

"I'm unsure."

"What makes you say that?"

"Something about his stature, his style, his look – it just doesn't seem like Salem."

"Then what do you think he is?"

"Maybe something….different?"

Silence.

"Glynda?"

"Yes?"

"Can you call up the Security Council? I need to speak with them immediately."


	13. Chapter 12

The first thing Kaneki noticed about the industrial district was its foul stench - the stench of decay. That was a scent that Kaneki had been more than familiar with in Tokyo, but here it seemed magnified by a thousand. At first he tried to ignore it with his books, but the stench just consumed anything and everything in his path, pervading every minor thing it encountered, soaking it in the foul stench of rot and decay.

Maybe it just reminded him of himself.

Charlie was pacing in front of him - pacing in a giant circle. For hours, he had been wandering in a circle, rarely seruving from the path, almost like a religious ritual compelled him. He fiddled with his dry, cracked fingers - the color was nearly gone from his face. Standing up, Kaneki could notice that the slim man was even slimmer - and his hair had a couple new strands of white hair among the jet blackness. Occasionally, Charlie would run his fingers through his hair, and try to hide the strands, but they just popped back up, more noticeable than ever. His eyes were darting across the room, as if seeing every change, no matter how minute.

Something - the thing, the disease - was eating him from the inside, and they both knew it.

"When do you think we can head out?" asked Kaneki, coaxing a response - any response - to stop the deafening silence of the warehouse.

"A couple days - yeah, yeah, a couple days," responded Charlie, his voice shaken, uncomfortable, uncommitted - as if he was trying to convince the both of them.

"And then we go after that thing you need?"

"Yeah! Yeah, yeah - then we'll get it, we'll get it and we'll leave the country! Mistral, Mistral must be beautiful this time of year, right? It has to be!" Charlie said, screaming the answer out.

Kaneki tried to ignore the obvious hysteria of his benefactor, but the face - the face was smiling but there was no happiness there. The past four hours of constant worry and lack of sleep made the lines on his face become deeper, and the eyes sunken in.

"Charlie, why don't you get some sleep."

Charlie stopped pacing, and looking at Kaneki, his smile gone, his face cast into one of confusion.

"No, no, I - I can't, what if - what if they -"

"They won't."

Charlie stopped. He looked to his left, to the entrance of the warehouse - the warehouse doors were locked that night, and the only way they were coming in was through those doors.

And no one would go through those doors with Kaneki guarding it.

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I can - I can get some, some shut eye."

He seemed downcast now, as if the energy had been sucked out of him in an instant.

"Get some sleep and we can head out in the morning."

Charlie didn't respond, but simply sat where he stopped walking, and limply fell onto the floor with a minor thud, his eyes closed shut.

Out like a light.

Kaneki looked up towards the skyline, the moonlight acting as his only source of light.

The shattered moon was beautiful at night. Sometimes, when staring at, he'd see that the pieces weren't where they were before, but at ever so subtly moved. It was, according to some of the books, common for moon watchers to see which direction they moved next, as there was no consistent pattern for the movement of the moon's shattered movements.

At any rate, it was beautiful.

It almost made the disgusting stench bearable.

* * *

" _Human Grimm?"_

Ozpin nodded to General Ironwood through the video screen, his face forever plastered with that stern but emotionless face.

" _Like Salem?_ "

"Potentially."

" _Are you absolutely sure?_ "

"We are not, but, based off reports from Qrow and two other Huntsmen, it seems that this Grimm may have the ability of Salem."

" _Have you engaged it?_ "

"Not with military force, but Qrow and one of the Huntsmen confronted a location it lived in. In addition, it may have psychologically injured one of my students, but it is unknown if he somehow engaged it previously."

" _Do you know its location?_ "

"Warehouse A-12, in the industrial district of Vale."

" _And what is your suggested course of action?_ "

"We wait, and see what its next move is."

" _What?_ "

" _Ozpin - how could you - how -_ " The words just couldn't materialize, no matter how much Ironwood tried to grab onto them they just slipped away and he stammered, stammered out meaningless sounds and words that meant absolutely nothing. It was as if the feelings couldn't be put into words - no, they could not be put into words, they could only be related in grunts and gasps.

"James, calm down."

Ironwood took a deep breathe.

"Why, Ozpin, did you not neutralize the threat?"

"Because it is possible that we could use this creature to our advantage."

Ironwood did not respond.

"You see," Ozpin continued, ignoring Ironwood's non-response, "two Huntsman saw this creature attack a Grimm in the forest."

" _Attack a….Grimm?_ " Ironwood said, trailing off near the middle, trying to understand what had just been said, " _Grimm attacking Grimm? Has that ever occurred before?_ "

"Not in recorded history, no, and I've looked through the records."

Ironwood stopped talking - stopped attempting to maintain eye-contact with Ozpin, looking down at his desk. He seemed to be thinking about it, the possibilities, the outcomes, the explanations - could it be true? Could an enemy of Salem have been found?

Laughter.

" _So you plan on using him to our advantage then?_ "

Ozpin nodded.

" _My God, that is legitimately the strangest plan you've put together, Ozpin._ "

"It may be strange, but it may help in our war against Salem. If this Grimm has even a tenth of the power available to Salem, it would be indispensable in our fight."

" _It would be very useful - and what of the rest of the Security Council?_ "

"I will notify them very shortly of a meeting very, very soon."

" _And if it makes a move?_ "

"We have a dirty old Qrow looking after him."

* * *

 _Fuck._

That was the first thing Charlie felt when he woke up.

" _Fuckkkkkkk_."

That was the first word Charlie groaned out as he noticed how his hands and feet felt numb against the cold concrete floor of the abandoned warehouse. Why was he sleeping this way? Fuck, goddamnit, his face felt awful and painfully numb - where the hell was Kaneki? God, this was worse than a hangover - his body physically ached.

Charlie put both of his hands on the concrete floor and attempted to push his upper body off the floor. He exerted every part of his strength to doing that, but he felt drained.

No.

Not drained.

He felt used up. Like a car battery that was on its last spurt of juice, or a washcloth that had the rest of its water wrung. Like something had dug its way inside of him, dug its way into his body and slowly pushed a part of himself out.

He continued to push up against the floor, trying to get his upper body and face off the concrete floor - why was it so hard to just push up? He wasn't that weak, was he? Had being inside for a week really made him so weak?

He tried a new strategy - rolling himself over onto his back and calling for help. Maybe Kaneki could fetch him some water - water would be nice. Water was cool. Water could help him get over this.

He placed one hand to his left, and began pulling on it as hard as possible - God, something was hurting inside of him. Why did his body feel like it was literally burning from the inside?

Fuck, was it the withdrawl? No, no, no, that was not true - was it? Was this what it felt like to die?

No, no, no - that was his mind playing tricks.

He wouldn't die. Not yet. He was too young, and, besides, he had his life ahead of him, he could get the Dust - he could get it. He just needed time.

He finally grabbed hold of the floor to flop himself over onto his back like a seal. He noticed the bright sunlight outside, and how it blinded him for a moment before his eyes readjusted.

" _Kanekiiiiiii."_

No response.

" _Kanekiiiiiii."_

No response.

" _KANEKIIIII!"_

He screamed, and he finally noticed how garbled and dry his voice was. His scream came out like a dry shrill, and it hurt to speak now.

Finally, he noticed something moving along the outside of his eyes - some figure, dark figure, hiding in the darkness.

" _KANEKI! GET ME SOME WATER!"_

The shrill became even lower now, lower than Charlie thought was possible.

The figure got closer, and Charlie, his eyesight still somewhat blinded and unadjusted to the light thought he saw a figure there - a familiar figure.

A figure that was not Kaneki.

Something lodged itself into Charlie's throat. Like food that just wouldn't go down his throat he stood there, feeling his jaws and mouth and everything else around his body downwards go completely stiff, as if his body couldn't comprehend what he was seeing.

In the darkness, he saw him - the man who became his first friend.

Barney's hair grew long. Long and decayed, with follicles falling out by the tuff. His green eyes had sunk into his now yellow face, and the lines around his face had sunken deeper, like the long ravins of valleys and mountains.

That was the last time Charlie had seen Barney alive.

He was clear, and yet he wasn't. He was like a figure far away and up close, combined together and simultaneously true and incorrect at the same time.

But in the darkness, he could see his mouth open, and extend a long, drooling tongue, unencumbered by any teeth for his had fallen out a long time ago, replaced by empty gums.

And then the burning flared.

And then he screamed.

* * *

The first thing Kaneki heard when he awoke was a shrill scream, piercing the air like rusted metal against a chalk-board. He awoke bolted upwards, his back, slightly sore from sitting against the back wall all night, upright and staring in every single direction, looking for the source of the shrill screaming.

His senses told him that it was coming from the center, from the man.

Although, how much was left of him was becoming harder and harder for Kaneki to understand. He squirmed around on the floor, his eyes staring at something non-existent in the corner of the vast empty warehouse, waving around his arm in the general direction of his eyes, his other arm limply sitting against the concrete floor while his body tried its best to run away. But he couldn't, and so he squirmed, at one point trying to drag himself away as he screamed.

"KANEKIII," he screamed, slurring on the last part but still audible despite it, "PLEASEEEEEE."

Kaneki ran over to the screaming man, nearly tripping over himself, and stood over the man, his eyes wide and nearly bulging out of his face.

"KANEKIII PLEASE" screamed Charlie, his voice still shrill. He lifted his arm up to Kaneki, grabbing hold of his shoulder and trying to lift him up, but falling back down, moaning in agony, as if every single movement required a herculean effort. "MY BODY _BURNS_!"

"Where does it burn?!" Kaneki said, nearly screaming out the last part - he was used to people having nightmares, he had them himself, but this wasn't a nightmare.

Not a sleeping one, anyway.

"MY CHEST - OH GOD EVERYWHERE PLEASE, GET ME WATER PLEASE, I HURT!"

Kaneki looked down towards his chest, covered in a hoodie. He grabbed hold of it, thrusting it up and over the unwilling (and incapable) victim.

And then he stopped.

Despite the screaming pleas for mercy and help, he stopped.

He knew he shouldn't have. He knew he should have done something, but he didn't.

His eyes had, uncharacteristically, widened, as he saw Charlie's chestline, covered in a black, pussing, decaying mold.

No. No, not mold - it was….it was _flesh_.

It covered the outline of his ribs, hugging against the small line of epidermis that protected it from the large collection of diseased flesh. It seemed to be dripping down his chest, up and around his stomach lining, and seemingly trying to bury itself into it.

And the worst part was that it moved and writhed around.

It seemed to be slowly morphing and changing before his eyes - and then it stopped, almost as quickly as Kaneki noticed it.

It then began to move upwards, collectively slithering back up Charlie's body, the screams of its victim becoming background noise in the greater action being performed. It moved towards Charlie's chin, and, suddenly, covered it, forcing it down, his mouth wide open. Then, it began to move up along the sides of his mouth.

* * *

Before Charlie had tasted the black blob of nothingness, he thought death didn't have a taste. And how could it? It was an abstract concept, created by people.

Now, however, he knew death had a taste.

And it tasted bitter. Bitter and putrid. Like the smell of a dead animal turned into a taste - was that even possible?

But that wasn't the worst part - no, the worst part was the feeling.

It was like throwing up in reverse - something pushing down and down and down until it reached the bottom, and you tried your best but you stomach just would not - could not - stop it from coming down. His mouth wanted to clamp close, but the black blob of nothing just clamped it open. He felt his eyes water, but God he just wanted to cry. Anything would be better than accepting this putrid shit. It was worse than anything he tasted before - worse than anything he had _felt_ before. Why, oh God, did this have to happen to him? He wanted to grab hold of that little fucker and just _squash it._

Why couldn't he move? Why the fuck couldn't he m-

Then his jaws popped shut, and the blob slithered down his throat, and, as fast as it was seen, it was gone.


	14. Chapter 13

"KANEKI!"

No response.

"KANEKIIIIIIIII!"

No response.

"KANEK-"

"Shut up!"

Ruby stopped, slumping over at Weiss' scream.

"You aren't gonna find him by just screaming his name."

"Hmm."

Ruby looked ahead - Yang and Blake were ahead of her, silent. The latter seemed deep in concentration.

"Do you smell anything yet?" Ruby yelled, trying to pass the time with something, _anything_ \- it was so boooooooooring.

"Not yet."

 _Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh._

"Come on Rubes, you wanted to do this, right?"

"Yeah but I didn't think it'd be so booooooooooooring. We're just wandering around doing nothing!"

"Well what _did_ you think it was gonna be?" replied Weiss, annoyed and looking down at her scroll.

"Uh. More action-y?"

"Real life ain't an action movie, Rubes. Sometimes you gotta do the boring stuff before you get to the exciting stuff," said Yang, punching her gauntlet into her fist and smiling. "Ain't that right Blake?"

"..."

"Blake?"

Blake stopped in her tracks, an alley to her left. She put her hand in the air, a single finger wagging in the air.

"That way."

There was no friendliness in her voice.

* * *

Kaneki sat next to Charlie. His face had grown even paler, and the lines had somehow gotten even deeper.

Ever since that _thing_ left there was nothing but silence. How could there have been anything but silence? How the fuck did you talk about something like that? _Could_ you even talk about something like that? A literal blob of slime trying to dig into your body from the outside just crawled back into his body - what sort of icebreaker could you use to liven the atmosphere regarding that?

"What was that?"

Charlie seemed to recoil a bit at the sudden breaking of silence, but only for a moment. He seemed to look around the room, and then finally at the skyline above them, the morning sun slowly but surely moving across the sky.

"I don't know."

Charlie's voice choked up a bit, his face seeming to clamp up and harden.

And, again, silence.

"We should head out."

Kaneki pushed himself off the floor. He gave his hand to Charlie, waiting for a response.

"I'll."

Clamp.

"I'll just. Wait here."

He swallowed.

"I need to wait here."

"And if the thing comes back?"

"It won't be coming back."

Kaneki sighed.

"Okay."

* * *

Blake smelled it. That putrid death smell that had been etched into her very mind from that young age. She could smell it miles away, even if she wasn't a Fanus.

There was a silence among her comrades. There wasn't even a sigh or complaint from any of them. It was pure and utter silence.

She knew it was this way. Everything in her body told her it was this way - when had her senses lied to her before?

A part of her wanted to run away. Run away and not look back. But isn't that just like her? To run away like a scared little girl? No, not now. At least not with her friends counting on her.

Whatever _it_ was - whatever Kaneki was - she wasn't going to let her guard down. Whatever it was, it had that putrid death smell - the smell of rot and decay. The smell of Grimm.

But was it possible? Was it possible for a person to be a Grimm? She knew that Grimm got smarter as they got older, but was a human-Grimm hybrid possible with enough age and time? She supposed so, but what was its intention? Did it have intentions? Was it possible that it wanted to destroy Vale? But if so, why was it in the industrial district?

So many questions swirled around in her head, and yet there might not be answers.

But the scent was getting stronger now. And the smell of industrial, decay - a more familiar sort - became noticeable now. But the smell of Grimm was overpowering. Overriding everything else, even the smell of her friends. Before, she could smell the perfumes that Weiss used, smelled the sweet scent of roses all over Ruby, and, well, sweat from Yang. But now, it was everywhere, soaking into their smells to create a disgusting feeling in her stomach.

And it grew ever stronger.

"H-How much further?" asked Weiss.

"Soon."

"Where are we heading?" asked Ruby.

"The industrial district."

"Why would he be there?"

"Maybe he lives there?" said Yang, throwing her hair back a little.

 _Hmm._

They took a right. Soon, they would be there. A corner or two and they'd be in the long lines of warehouses and factories that pervaded the eastern section of the city near the docks. It was a place of decay - a section of the city that seemingly rotted from the outside, a place that could never really expand but forever contracted, going further and further inward, consuming itself and yet never able to produce enough to make it up. It was the only part of Vale that seemed to stay in the past.

"I don't trust this guy," said Blake.

"Come on, Blake! He doesn't seem dangerous - a little weird, but who isn't?"

"'A little weird' is a bit of an understatement, Ruby," replied Weiss.

"Maybe he likes the scenery?" Ruby speculated, shrugging her shoulders innocently.

Blake continued walking, ignoring the group's conversation. The thoughts in her head raddled around too much for her to notice - they were all turned onto the strange, white haired man that she had known for less than ten minutes. The same thoughts from before continued to swirl and swirl until eventually collecting together into meaningless speculation, all of it plausible and yet all of it fundamental incongruent with the reality of the situation.

The smell. It was getting closer and closer now.

She turned another corner. Finally, she was in the industrial district - those large, decaying, rotting buildings that seemed to never leave the sight. A black eye upon the city of dreams and freedom. An ugly truth that everyone hated to acknowledge but no one wanted to fix.

And the home of a monster - or what, to Blake, seemed to be a monster.

But above all her other questions was of one that seemed to never leave. One that haunted her above all else.

Would she have to kill him? And if not, would he do it first?

* * *

Kaneki walked along the long, winding alleyways between the warehouses. At night, it almost looked like the walls were trying to crush him, grinding him into dust, waiting for the exact moment to attack. But, in the bright morning sunlight, there was nothing to hide - nothing to be afraid of.

Kaneki chuckled to himself grimly - he must be letting himself go if he was starting to be afraid of shadows.

Shadows and walls.

He made a turn - God, there were so many warehouses. How many had Charlie told him to look through? 25? 30? Something like that. Would he be able to find them all today? Would he even be able to find them at _all_?

Kaneki sighed - he had to try, at the very least. He had that much of an obligation. Even if the dumb fuck didn't deserve that common courtesy.

Kaneki uncrumpled the little piece of paper he had been given. From 1 to 30, the address and number was scribbled in tiny, incompetently written shorthand. They look like they had been run through a fun house mirror before being written down.

Number 1 was labelled A141, and should have been located near the eastern section of the district. Okay, wasn't much of a start, but it was still something. He had to begin somewhere.

Kaneki eventually turned again, making sure to keep his eyes glued to the paper and the various plaques stuck on the outside of the rotting metal giants around him. Some of them were gone. Some were rusted beyond sight. Others laid near it's original home, crumbled and crushed by an unknown force and sight - probably some disgruntled ex-employee, fighting back against a corporation that had turned its back on them.

Kaneki wondered about the history of this place - it reminded him of photos of the industrial districts in the countryside of Japan. They had been overtaken by nature, with leaves and grass growing along the insides of the buildings. The windows had been smashed in, either from hooliganism or from the natural effects of the weather, specifically thunderstorms blowing through rocks and trees and cars and whatever other thing so happened to be caught in the unfortunate display of nature's power. Nature had reclaimed those buildings - Kaneki wondered what was reclaiming these. Rust?

He wasn't sure. But whatever it was, it seemed to be doing a wonderful job.

Finally, as he made his way along the lines of endless warehouses, trailing his finger along the places where the plaques _should_ have been, he stopped in front of one. _The_ one.

A141.

He stopped, standing slightly to his left as he looked in front of himself. The entrance was twice his size, and, like many of its fellows, contained a significant amount of rust. The lock had long ago cracked under the pressure, and laid on the concrete, slowly but surely rotting to dust. The door lay slightly opened, as if someone either forgot or didn't care to close it. Most likely some poor bastard drunk, trying to find his way home at night and finding the district, his only refugee from the cold nights.

Something about that thought made Kanaki shiver.

Suddenly, he heard a loud, high pitched voice.

"KANEKIIIIIII!"

He stopped in his tracks. The voice - the voice was so familiar. It was the girl, wasn't it? The little redheaded girl from the cafe? Damnit. Goddamnit, why was she here? Did she _follow_ him?

Kaneki tried to locate where the voice was, trying to pinpoint it's location and how and if he could avoid it. Suddenly, he could hear it - hear it as clear as day.

"KANEKIIIII ARE YOU HERE?"

It was coming from a couple warehouses down. He wondered what he should do - confront them? Ignore them? Escape to a new location with Charlie?

All of those options didn't seem to make much sense in the long run - if they found him once, they would probably find him again. They wanted something. But what? What in the hell what they even want with him? He was just some weird stranger in a cafe. Nothing more, nothing less, and yet, they followed him.

Maybe they had discovered something about him? Was it possible they were involved in the Hunters raiding Charlie's apartment? He supposed that wouldn't be too difficult to presume - their meeting and the raid wasn't that far apart, and he guessed it was possible he had been followed without even knowing it - but if they wanted him dead or arrested, why try looking for him in the strangest and most incomprehensible way possible?

Maybe they just really wanted to talk?

Or maybe they were leading him into a trap?

Or maybe something completely different?

Kaneki sighed. Whatever they wanted, they wouldn't go away until they got what they wanted. Better to cut them off before they had the chance to fuck anything else up.

He began making his way across the warehouses.

* * *

"KANEKIIII! KANEKII! KANK-"

"Ruby, this isn't working."

"Oh come on Weiss! You can't give up - I know we're close, I just know it, right Blake?"

"Yeah, I think so. Just a little bit farther."

"See!" Ruby replied, throwing her hands up and down to emphasis the point.

Weiss sighed - how much longer? This place was creepy enough as it is, but they were also chasing some strange guy in it? Yeah, no. Despite not having watched a single horror movie, this sounded like the script to a bad one - and Ruby was falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

"Ruby," Weiss began, "look, obviously, we all agreed to find Kaneki, but, come on, is it really necessary to cause this much of a commotion about it?"

"Oh?" interjected Yang, smiling mischievously as she wrapped her hand around the shoulder of the white haired girl, "is little Ms. Heiress getting _scared_?"

"Of course not!" Weiss replied indignantly, almost screaming as she forced Yang's arm off her. "All I'm saying is, maybe we _shouldn't_ be wandering around like a bunch of morons!"

"Come onnnnnnnn," drawled Ruby, dragging it out as long as possible, "we'll find him soon, don't worry about it."

Weiss grumbled, remaining quiet as she contemplated the situation. If they wanted to act like a bunch of idiots, fine, that's their business. Besides, they'd be able to fend off any dangerous criminals if need be.

"Hey!" yelled a familiar voice, coming from near the alleyway of one of the buildings. Weiss turned her head quickly, instinctively pulling for her sword before recognizing the gleaming white hair in the harsh rays of the sun.

"KANAKIIIIII" yelled Ruby, zooming past her comrades in a swift, aura-filled blast of air that propelled her right in front of the white-haired man. For a moment, he staggered back, barely able to keep himself upright. He quickly recomposed himself, however.

"Ah, hello Ruby. Nice to meet you too." He tried to smile, but the stiff reactions of his muscles betrayed his true feelings. His eyes were tracing over Team RWBY, taking in each and every sight available to him. Weiss felt a little uncomfortable when those eyes quickly looked over her before moving to Yang and Blake.

"What are you doing here?" he said, laughing. He stood up straight, looking down at the short red head.

"We could ask you the same thing, Kaneki," interjected Weiss, her voice cracking halfway through as the nervous energy puslated through her.

"Well, you know, I like to take in the sights and the sounds of Vale - still new, and all." He stepped forward a little bit towards the group. "I could be asking you the same thing - are you doing a team training exercise?"

He laughed awkwardly, his eyes darting to his immediate right as he did so.

"Well, we were looking for you!" Ruby replied, yelling the answer as she smiled.

The white haired boy - the boy that Weiss was starting to realize was not exactly "normal" by any stretch of the imagination - smiled through the deepening creases and lines in his face, the stiffening of his facial muscles, and the slight increase in his heart race.

All of this was barely noticeable to the red headed girl.

"Why? Did I do something?"

"Well," Ruby began, "no, not really -"

"Well, if I did nothing wrong, I see no reason why a bunch of Huntsmen in training are going around following some weirdo instead of focusing on work."

"Well, of course, but -" Ruby stopped as Kaneki raised an eyebrow, his smile lowering into a neutral expression. "Well, you see, well."

"We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions," interjected Yang, her eyes darting back from her group to Kaneki, who was quickly dropping his friendly demeanor.

"What kind of questions?"

"Questions relating to one of our classmates. We think you may have done something to him."

"As far as I know, you're the only students I've interacted with."

"The only ones?"

"Yeah. I mean, aside from the ones in the libr-" Suddenly he stopped, as if the gears of the situation finally clicked inside his mind, and it all made sense. He smiled, and his eyes widened.

"Ohhhhh, I know why you guys are here."

"You do?" Ruby said, a little bit confused now at the flow in the conservation.

"Yeah, it's about that gang I met at the library a couple days back. Team Car-din-al, was it?"

"Yes, Team CRDL - did you do something to them?" replied Yang, taking the lead over Ruby, who was beginning to feel uncomfortable as her attempts at Bad-copism failed.

"No, of course I did nothing."

"Then why is one of those members in the hospital after seeing a white haired kid?"

"I don't know. They wanted to get the jump on me, and one of their members started freaking out. I left after that. Your reason for why that kid did that is about as good as mine."

Ruby felt her heart sank. Something about the situation just felt off - this wasn't how it was supposed to go. She hadn't been a good bad cop, yes, but this wasn't how it was supposed to go at all. He was supposed to reveal something, a detail that would create a wider answer and eventually lead to taking down the evil drug den crime lord who was going to blow up the orphanage.

That last bit got a little off the rails, but that was usually how it was supposed to go. Instead, Kaneki just brushed it off like it was nothing - this wasn't how it was supposed to go down! She had to do something, anything!

And yet, despite everything, her body would just not talk She felt defeated. All the questions she wanted to ask Kaneki, the ones that had piled on and on ever since they decided on interrogating him, had just disappeared as soon as she had to say a single word to the man.

A thick blanket of fog covered the district now. Even the birds and the sound of industrial equipment seemed to deafen itself. It was pure and utter silence.

"Well," Kaneki said, finally breaking the silence, his smile disappearing as he turned around, "if you don't mind, I'm gonna continue my walk in peace."

He softly waved his hand as he began to walk away, as if he was declaring his victory against the small band of teenagers, telling them to go home and never try again.

"What are you?"

* * *

There were many questions that Kaneki was expecting to hear from the group. Some involved questions about his aura, some involved questions about who he was and what he was doing in Vale, some about why he seemed so confused and lost in the great city.

However, the one question he never expected to receive was the one he dreaded the most - and how could he? Ghouls didn't exist in this world. For all intents and purposes, he was the first and last of his kind. The beginning and the end. The alpha and omega and all that stuff.

And yet, that question, that single, solid question broke down his barriers. It collided through his walls of protection and into his very soul.

Kaneki slowly turned to face Team RWBY - he knew how different he would look now.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, etching a fake smile onto his tired, broken face.

The black haired girl stepped forward, her face as pale as Kaneki's skin. "You...you're just _wrong_. You aren't a normal person. I…." She trailed off, looking off to her side. Kaneki's nose wasn't the best out there, but he could smell it. The perspiration of skin. The rush of blood, pumping all around her body. He could almost hear her heart thumping insider her chest, thumping and thumping against her like a freight train.

"I'm what?" he asked, that fake smile continuing to grow as he stepped forward to her. He felt his eyes widen. He felt sweat gather inside his clenched palms. His heart thumped against his chest. Thump, thump thump, thump.

"You're…..you're not…." she kept cutting herself off as her breathing became more and more hitched and erratic.

"B-Blake?" whimpered Ruby, her face contorted into one of worry and fear. "A-Are you o-okay?"

"Y-You're n-not human, a-are you?"

Kaneki felt his heart explode outside of his chest as he laughed.

Oh, he hadn't heard that laughter in so long.

Not since Jason.

"Oh, oh Blake!" he laughed out, tears quickly appearing in his eyes, darting them across the now uncomfortable faces of the girls before him. Their faces ranged from creeped out to outright horrified. "Oh, oh that's a good one!"

Blake stepped back a couple feet, making sure to stand by her friends.

She uttered something into Ruby's ears. In spite of the loudness of his laughter, Kaneki could hear the terrified words behind the little black haired girl. _We have to leave, now. Now. Don't look back._ Finally Ruby, looked up, trying to fake a smile.

"Well, K-Kaneki, I-I am sorry to bother you about that, b-but we'll be on o-our way. Thank y-you for your help."

Before Kaneki could respond, the girls quickly turned around the way they came. As they entered into an alleyway, Kaneki heard their walking turn to a sprint and sprint into a full on terror running.

In spite of that, Kaneki continued to laugh. The tears were streaming down his face now, and he couldn't stop himself from laughing. His heart was the only thing he could hear now. Aside from the laughter.


	15. Chapter 14

It had been seven days since the incident, and Charlie had begun to get his strength back. He was walking around now, at the very least, and he was keeping food down well enough. But that wasn't what concerned him, at least not anymore.

The only thing he was thinking about was his face.

In the back of the warehouse, there was a mirror. It had been cracked along the edges on the top, making it refract here and there, but, for the most part, it was functional. It was inside the bathroom along with the toilet and urinal. Aside from using it to fix his hair and passing it by during mid-night pisses, he never really looked into it. That was, until this morning.

It had to be around 4 or 5 in the morning. Charlie could see the infant sunlight push back the darkness, and the broken moon replaced with the beautiful sun. He felt his bowels slip, and quickly rushed his way towards the bathroom, making sure to lock the door.

When he was done, and after washing his hands, he looked at his face.

As he looked at it he jumped back, gripping onto a handle in the back as he looked at the flesh around his face.

His once fairly toned skin had been turned yellowy. Bigger bags had lined his eyes. His eyes were sunken, creating a black ring around his eyes like a cartoon character. His five o'clock shadow disappeared, replaced with baby smooth skin along where a beard should have been growing. Along the side of his neck, he noticed a pale spot of skin. He slowly raised a hand towards it, poking it before pulling back and realizing it was dead skin. Except he felt what was under there - it was his flesh. His goddamn _flesh_.

Charlie felt like throwing up. He felt like curling up into a ball and ending it there. Why not? It was better than this. Oh God, oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

He felt himself breathing heavily now. His hands were trembling as he leaned into the sink, studying ever horrid section of his diseased face.

He looked like a freak. He looked like a degenerate freak. Was this what Barney looked like? Was this why he ended it?

Something inside him told him that wasn't why. That this was just the beginning. He shivered as that thought raced through his mind.

He leaned back, closing his eyes and counting to 5. He needed time to think. He needed time to breathe. He had time. He had to have time. He didn't know how much time, but he knew he had enough. He just needed to get his Dust before that internal timer ended. Then everything would be better. Everything would be better.

Everything would be better.

He unlocked the door to the bathroom, and stepped out.

He did not go back to sleep.

* * *

For the past couple days, Kaneki and Charlie had been checking the warehouses in relative peace. Nothing strange or dangerous happened, and no progress had been made in the discovery of Charlie's drugs, of which he kept trying to pretend was a lost family heirloom.

Kaneki continued to play along, although whether for the sake of formality or for the sake of Charlie's sanity he didn't know. All he knew was that the list of warehouses continued to shrink from 29 to 7. He knew that one of them had to be it. He just hoped there was something of value here at the end of the rainbow.

A072 was his warehouse of the day. It was another one of those warehouses - the types with broken glass everywhere on the floor, boxes smashed in from drunk homeless people collapsing into them. Sometimes they had blood, but that was a rarity. It was another reminder of a bygone era of industry. Kaneki could almost see the hundreds of workers here, moving and placing boxes down and onto ships.

He sighed, remembering that he had another warehouse to cover. They agreed to both cover three or so every day, but no more. It was to avoid suspicion, Charlie claimed, his continuing to yellow in spite of the harsh sunlight peeking through the windows of their home base.

Yeah, suspicion. Because it totally wasn't the fact that Charlie's joints were cracking with each and every movement of his body, a fact he refused to acknowledge in spite of their obvious sound. Or the fact that every time he returned, he looked a little thinner. He must have lost two to three inches on his waist since they arrived, and no matter how much food he ate, he just kept losing more and more weight. Or the fact that he couldn't walk more than five miles a day without feeling queasy.

It was all from the same source. That goddamn drug. That goddamn high that Charlie kept chasing. And Kaneki was just allowing it to happen. Of course he was. Why not? It was his problem, wasn't it?

He tried telling himself that, but it just didn't feel right. He knew he couldn't help him, not really, but he should have at least tried. Right?

He didn't know.

He turned around, beginning his walk towards the last warehouse of the day.

* * *

It was a Saturday, and Ruby hadn't gotten out of bed yet. For some reason, she could not force herself out. It wasn't like the bed was extremely comfy, even if it was a good place to sleep in. Nor was it that she didn't have anything to do. She had enough homework to keep her awake for the next three days.

It was the numb feeling in her body as she relieved that memory. The memory of Kaneki laughing, a laugh filled with such sadness and terror that it felt like the helpless yelping of an animal being beaten. It felt so _wrong_. It wasn't the laugh a normal person would have. At least a normal one.

 _Oh, oh, oh oh that's a good one!_

The tears streaming down his face hadn't helped either.

She turned over in her bed, facing the bright rays flooding through the windows of Team RWBY's room.

She across to see Yang sound asleep. Above her, Blake was reading a book. Across the room, in the desk, was Weiss, reading a book, placing it down occasionally to write a note or two before returning to her reading.

Ruby sighed, turning back over, facing the wall as she closed her eyes.

The memory just wouldn't leave.

It just flashed through her mind over and over again as she kept trying to think of anything - puppies, comic books, music, fighting. Heck, she even thought about beating up Cardin's stupid face, but that just brought it all back to Kaneki's horrible, horrible laugh.

And the question that came with it.

She remembered that night so vividly. They had ran, faster than any of them had at school exercises. A primal fear overcame them, pushing them towards their limits. They didn't stop until they were back on campus, and back into their dorm room. They slammed the door, stepping back from it a couple steps before calming down.

They turned in for the night, despite it being only 6. They didn't feel like doing any other activities for the day.

Throughout the next week, they carried on as usual. They studied. They paid attention in class. They played video games. They went out to the movies. They did all the things they could do to try and forget the man with the white hair.

None of it worked.

But they refused to talk about it. There was an unspoken agreement to ignore it, and no one wanted to break it first.

Ruby sighed, turning back and standing on her own two feet. As she did so, she noticed that Yang's eyes flickered open quickly, meeting her own.

"Oh, hey Rubes," Yang said, leaning upwards. "Howdidjuhsleep?" She asked, slurring them out as she yawned.

"I think we need to talk."

The entire room went silent as Team RWBY looked at their leader.

"A-About what, Rubes?"

"About Kaneki."

* * *

Qrow looked over at the young white haired man. For the past seven days, he had been wandering around this warehouse, looking. Looking for something.

But what was it? And what did that disgustingly yellow degenerate have to do with it?

He didn't know. He wasn't employed to deal with these questions. He had a job, and he planned on fulfilling that job.

He continued to walk towards his new destination, none the wiser as Qrow flew upwards, cicrling around the general area. If there was one good thing about being a bird, it was the feeling of the wind breezing past you as you flew around, diving up and down as you looked down at the ant-like people below you.

It was the closest thing to childlike happiness that Qrow had in a long, long time.

* * *

As Charlie walked across the district, his bones cracked with each step. It was a new development, and, just like the yellowing decaying face he wore, an unwelcomed one.

He turned his head back and forth between the warehouses in front of him, their rotting, rusting interiors creaking in the silence of the Vale industrial district. It was once a beautiful manufacturing base, Charlie heard. Back before the war. The factories created enough products to keep the entire planet alive for the next thousand years, and the warehouses kept enough food to supply the entire nation for 10,000 years. Ships came from all over the world, from the desert of Vacuo to the frozen tundra of Atlas.

That was, Charlie heard, before the War. The War that destroyed everything. Now, the only thing that remained was the ghosts of that pre-war era, when the world was stable and the threat of the Grimm seemed like a far away threat and nothing that could affect them.

Charlie closed his eyes, throwing away those useless memories and images, remembering what he was after: the Dust. That beautiful, sweet, Dust. He could feel it - feel the crushed, glittering rock-like material traveling up inside of his nose, traveling down into his lungs and brain and everywhere else that it could be absorbed. No withdraw for him, no sir, no way. Don't forget to write, you stupid _fuck_.

The Warehouse number - A-013. He didn't understand the numbering rationale behind this system, and he didn't pretend to. That wasn't why he was here. Everything was secondary when that goal entered his mind - even the cracking of his feet and hands as they moved through the air was quickly forgotten as he thought of what he actually wanted. What he _needed_.

The numbers counted down, from A-019 to A-018 and so on and so on until they reached the end. Charlie grabbed hold of his pistol, which was stuffed into the back of his jeans, loaded with the Dust bullets - bullets he thought about swallowing before, but he knew were impossible to digest with the gunpowder contained in them. He removed it, pulling down on the top hammer of the magnum, feeling like a pre-war cowboy as he reached the door.

He looked at the side. There wasn't a sign on the front, but he knew this was it. Everything in his body told him this was it. This was what everything was leading up too - or at least that's what his gut was telling him. And when had his gut ever lied to him?

He leaned up against the side of the building, right next to the closed door.

Everything was heightened now. Every little noise, both inside and out of the building could be heard. The rustling of the wind was amplified a thousand times their usual volume, in additional to the slight click of Charlie's magnum as he raised it into the air. This was it. This was it - this was _fucking_ it. The High he was looking for. That's what it was now to him - The High. The High, that mystical experience that nothing, not even religion, could replace. Maybe, Charlie thought, this was how a priest felt when he prayed to God, or a pilgrim starving himself for weeks on end felt. He didn't know, but he had a feeling it did.

The smile on his face became wider as he pressed his back against the metal wall against him. He pressed his hand onto the metal door, hoping - _praying_ \- that this was it.

Before he could even think about it, he swung the door open, pointing his revolver inside with both hands, barely fingering the trigger as he jumped inside, expecting to see a dozen thugs loading boxes into an underground train leading to some strange mystical land outside of time and space.

But, much like the rest, it was empty.

Strangely so.

As he stepped further inside, he noticed how bare and empty the inside of it was. There wasn't even an office section of the warehouse for a restroom, or a series of broken boxes and broken glass.

It felt dead.

No, it wasn't dead. It didn't look like it had even been alive in the first place.

Charlie lowered his revolver, stepping further into the skeleton building. He looked up towards the ceiling, and noticed how devoid of glass it was. Meaning that they had to have been removed, or broken. But if they were broken, where was the glass?

As he walked around inside, he felt something was wrong. Where was the boxes? Where was the blood? Where was the bathroom? Where was the dents in the walls? _Where was the goddamn toilet_?

None of this seemed to make sense.

As he took another couple of steps, Charlie tripped, feeling himself lunge through the air before colliding into the ground with a loud crash. For some reason, he felt the floor wobble a little bit. At first, he choked that up to his less than well mental state. That was, until he looked down at where he tripped, seeing an open section of the floor, with a rainbow of colors glowing up into the warehouse.

Charlie quickly crawled towards the opening, his smile returning as thoughts raced through his head - could it be? Could this be his treasure, His High? The thing he needed? The thing he loved more than anything else?

When he looked inside, his smile turned into a dumbfounded gape.

* * *

"Ruby, I really don't want to talk about…..whatever the hell that thing _is_ ," said Weiss, barely hiding her contempt and (barely concealed) fear.

"I know you don't, but we can't just pretend it didn't happen."

"I have," interjected Yang, flustered at the conservation being thrusted upon them without any warning from their leader. "And I'm perfectly comfortable pretending that never happened."

"Yeah, Ruby, I'm with Yang here. After it's response to Blake, I honestly don't want to even think about it. What if he's crazy? What if he's some weird creature that wants to kill us all?"

"I-I, uh, y-yeah, I j-just th-"

"Ruby," Yang sighed, closing her eyes before staring in Ruby's silver ones. "I love you. I really do. But I am not going to go after some _thing_ just to get answers out of it. And as long as I am here, you aren't as well."

Ruby looked away from her sister, trying to think of some argument to counter them. But no matter what she thought of, none of it seemed to work. And, now that she began to think about it, the plan just seemed dumb. After running away, would it make sense to try and track him again?

"I-"

"Yang is right."

The three girls turned their heads towards their black haired teammate, who up until now has been silent.

"It's not smart to go after whatever it is. It just doesn't make sense. We're freshmen, and while we've improved a lot since coming to Beacon, we aren't Huntsmen yet. We should leave this up to the professionals. Which is why I am going to report this to Headmaster Ozpin, and clean my hands of this entire situation."

Blake stood up, and left the room, closing the door behind her without a second thought or consideration.

The three girls stood there silent before Yang stood up.

"I'm going with her."

"Me too."

"But guys -"

"No Ruby. I am not entertaining this. For once, I agree with Blake: we, as a team, have outvoted you. We are not going to try and talk to Kaneki."

Weiss followed after Blake, this time slamming the door as she left.

Yang sighed, looking over to her now slumped over sister.

"Sorry sis, but you can't force us to do something like this."

Yang left, leaving the little red head alone.

As Ruby laid there against the side of her bed, Zwei, their most recent bunkmate, came up to her and began licking her face.

"Oh Zwei," Ruby began, picking up the little adorable Corgi as it stared into her eyes. "I don't know what to do. I wanna ask Kaneki if he needs help, but the rest of my team thinks it's a stupid idea. And they're probably right. But I don't know what to do. It just doesn't seem right. What do you think?"

She lowered Zwei onto her belly, letting him rise and fall on her breathing chest.

"Well," said Ruby, deepening her voice slightly to emulate a masculine one as he moved Zwei's paws up and down, "you could just do it. You aren't hurting anyone."

"I don't know Zwei, but sis doesn't want me to."

"So what? What she doesn't know isn't gonna hurt her."

"I guess you're right Zwei. But what if Kaneki truly needs my help and I can't provide it?"

"Well, you won't know if you don't try, will you?"

Ruby smiled, raising Zwei up into the air, jumping up while doing so.

"Zwei!" she yelled, her silver eyes widened, smile stretching from ear to ear. "You're a genius!"

"No, you're the genius. And Weiss is a big dumb dumb."

"I know Zwei but you don't have to be so mean!"

She giggled as she put the corgi down, who wandered off towards Blake and Yang's side of the room.

"I, Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose, swear that I will save all those who need to be saved, even those with weird white hair and a bad sense of nail paint colors!"

She quickly began changing, thinking to herself how maybe things would go more smoothly this time. Besides, Kaneki was probably better now, right?

* * *

 _Kill them._

"No."

 _Eat them._

"No."

 _Not even the cute red head?_

"Fuck you."

The creature that looked and sounded like Kaneki stretched it's disgust, mangled body across the room, it's bird-beak like mask hiding it's deformed pale face. The eye in the middle twitched all over the place as blood dripped down it's chin. It giggled as it used a tendril to move across the ceiling of the warehouse.

 _Pop her brain like a cherry - ohhh, that would be so delicious._

"Fuck you and die," responded Kaneki, his face downcast into an angry scowl.

This had been one of the more unfortunate side effects of his laughing fit in front of the Ruby crew. The disgusting degenerate in front of him pestered him whenever it got a chance, and whenever Kaneki let his guard down. It was always when he was alone and tired, and always at a time when he was just wanted to be left alone.

And when he was feeling hungry.

 _Why so hostile? I'm just repeating what you're already thinking._

"We are nothing alike."

 _Oh that's a lie, Kaneki Ken. You're smart enough to know that, aren't you? Or did landing in this shithole knock your brains out?_

"Maybe it did. But that still doesn't change we are nothing alike."

 _You know you want to eat them. You're hungry right now, aren't you? You wanna feast on their bones, ripping them apart for everything they're worth. I'm sure they're quiet delicious - very delicious indeed._

"Just….just leave me alone. I don't want to deal with this."

 _No can do, Kaneki. You're stuck with me, just as you're stuck with that bitch._

"The druggie or the one that tried to eat me?"

 _50/50, friend._

Kaneki laughed slightly at that. "I must be quite a narcissist to laugh at a joke I made."

 _You really do. Now-_

"Oi, Kaneki!"

Kaneki quickly turned his head, his face going pale as he looked at Charlie's yellow, smiling face.

"Who were you talking to?"

"N-No one, and I wasn't talking."

"Yeah, whatever - listen, Kaneki, I found something."

"What is it?"

Charlie's smile didn't waver as he stared into Kaneki's.

"Oh, Kaneki, oh buddy, you gotta see that one up close and personal. Come on!" Charlie turned around, not even closing the door as he ran down the row of warehouses.

Kaneki sighed, getting up and following his companion.

* * *

Ruby ran across the street in a fast red blur, beautiful rose petals being the only evidence of her smiled as she flew through the air, avoiding pedestrians as she made her way to the industrial district. Quickly, and with a precise motion, she jumped over a car that nearly rammed her, going past it as it began to honk at her angrily.

She giggled a little at that - it was fun to run through the city, sometimes. Let her hair down and fly, feeling the cool breeze of the air go past her as she ran.

But, she remembered, this wasn't a time for fun and games, as much as she loved them. She had a job to do.

But what was that job? What did she plan on doing? How would she 'help' Kaneki - and what if he didn't want her help?

She cast those thoughts out of her mind, instead thinking of the job ahead of her.

* * *

Kaneki wandered back and forth across the seemingly solid floor of the warehouse, the harsh rays of the setting sun bleeding through the perfectly intact glass. He looked up and down, occasionally turning his head to look back at Charlie, his sickly grin never leaving his face.

"What did you want me to see, exactly?" Kaneki asked, hiding his concern behind a stoic mask.

Charlie's grin seemed to get bigger at that, like the Cheshire cat from _Alice in Wonderland._ Although, unlike that creature, this one's mental stability was in more open question. He moved to Kaneki before stopped, dropping to his knees before sliding his hands into a dent in the floor previously unseen by Kaneki, and pulled upward, throwing it off to the side. As quickly as it came off, a bright and vibrant variety of colors glowed from the opening in the floor, ranging from red, green, yellow, white, orange, and every other conceivable color that Kaneki could comprehend.

Kaneki bent down beside Charlie, poking his head into the open crevasse. His mouth opened up, gasping as he took the full view in.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of brightly colored crystals of varying shapes and sizes. Some seemed the size of his hand, while others the size of his entire head. Their proportions were just as diverse as their colors, which contained every color of the rainbow - including those not otherwise seen. They seemed to reach for hundreds of miles, but in reality were no larger than the dimensions of the underground.

"What are these things?" asked Kaneki, his mouth still gaping open as he took the full view in.

"Dust. These things power everything, from the electricity in our cities, to the energy in our cars, to our guns and weapons. They are our everything. They are our ticket outta here."

Suddenly, Charlie grabbed a crystal and brought it out while simultaneously bringing his knife out.

"Kaneki, go back and get a bag of some sort. Get as much of this as you can. We're gonna sell some of this stuff when we get the chance, and save enough to get us outta the country. I…" he trailed off, continuing to look at the Dust crystal in his hand, still grinning. "...I have some business to deal with."

"But don't you have an important object for someone you cared about?" replied Kaneki, laughing humorlessly as he got up, staring at his companion.

"We can buy another one. There's enough in the underground to power the country for a whole day."

Kaneki sighed.

"Alright, Charlie. I'll go get a bag while you ...do your business."

* * *

This was it. This was fucking it. He held it. Held it in his _hands_. Had so much of it that he could make a fortune off it.

Rich. Rich and comfortable. Yes, yes, those were the thoughts going through his head. He could imagine it now - him and Kaneki riding the train of wealth and luxury as they traveled to Mistral. Hell, Mistral seemed small now - too backwater, too shitty and barbaric. No, no. Maybe Atlas? Vacou? Who cares! He could go anywhere. Shit, he could probably _buy_ an island for his own use.

But that didn't matter now. He needed to take care of business. He needed to do this. Needed to more than anything.

As he heard Kaneki walking off, he dropped to his hands and knees. His breathing was hitched now, slowly getting faster as he placed the Dust onto the floor. His hands trembled as he placed it there. He then got up onto his feet, and, as he breathed in and out, he raised his left foot and brought it down as hard as he could.

He felt his foot sting for a moment, but nothing more. He felt the crystal break under himself, but it wasn't going to be enough. Not by a fucking long shot.

He brought it down again. And again. And again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again until it was nothing but literal dust underneath his shoes. He could feel some of it dig into his heels, breaking them in and stabbing large shards into his flesh. As he stepped back, some dark red blood was leaking out of him.

No matter. It didn't matter. He dropped to his knees, taking his knife out and slowly chopping up the shards into yet smaller pieces. By God, he could smell it - smell the finely cut lines. Yes. Yes. Fuck you Barney. Fuck you Kaneki. Fuck you mom and all you fucks. This was _his_ , and fuck anyone else. This was what it was all about. This is what The High was for. This is what Purpose is. This is what God is.

As he finally crushed it into a simple pile, he placed them into five short lines of rainbow colors and the dark red of his bleeding foot. He could take care of that later. This was all that mattered now.

He closed his nostril on one side, and, with one swift motion, snorted all of it into his right nostril, opening his eyes as he fell onto his sides, moaning and groaning as he tried his best to not gag and throw up.

Oh God, oh fuck, that was good. Another one. He needed another one _goddamnit_.

* * *

Kaneki carried three big trash bags, hopefully enough to contain a lot of Dust, and sell it in bulk.

Kaneki felt disgusted with himself. What the fuck was he doing? Why the fuck did he continue to help this obvious fuck-up? Why was he indulging this worthless piece of time and energy?

He sighed, continuing to bring it along. Regardless of why, he was too deep in the shit to leave now. Just suck it up and hope it gets better. Besides, that stupid fuck was right about one thing: they couldn't remain in the country anymore. Whatever they had done, real or imagined, had drawn the attention of forces unknown. Whether it be the police or the government or some other third party, there was obviously something that was keeping an eye on him.

He looked up, noticing a crow.

Kaneki had been noticing a lot of crows hanging around in this place. Strange, considering they usually didn't hang out places like this. Still, there were weirder things in this world. The Dust being one of them.

Obviously, it was important. It generated energy. It was kinda like oil, in a way. But where did it come from? He hadn't read anything about that yet in his book. Is it a natural thing, or is it supernatural? How is it used for war related purposes?

Suddenly, Kaneki felt a breeze behind him. Then he heard that familiar, high pitched voice again.

* * *

"Hey Kaneki!" yelled Ruby, her large smile hiding her obvious fear and anxiety.

The white haired boy turned around, big black rings developing around his eyes. He was carrying trash bags - weird, but she had no room to judge, she supposed.

"H-Hey Ruby," he croaked out, barely waving out as the color drained from his face. "I-I hope I didn't s-scare you."

"O-Oh, that?" she responded, trying to remain cool, "that's fine! We've g-gone through weirder stuff."

Kaneki didn't respond to that. Instead, he dropped the bags in his hand, and turned his body to face the young redhead.

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to know if you are feeling better since we last spoke. You didn't seem well."

Kaneki laughed at that, making her cringe. But there was no humor in this laugh.

"You could say that. I haven't felt well in a long, long time, kid."

Kaneki's silver eyes met Ruby's own. They connected for a split second. She looked away, feeling uncomfortable as the silence continued.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that. D-Do you want to talk about?"

She stepped forward slightly, this time only ten or so feet away from Kaneki.

"No, but thank you. There are certain things you can only take care of by yourself."

"You can't handle everything by yourself, you know. No man is an island, as they say. Or at least that's what my dad used to say."

Kaneki smiled sadly, their eyes connecting once again. "Your father sounds like a smart man. I wish I had known that saying a long time ago. Maybe ...maybe I wouldn't be in this mess."

"What mess?" She stepped forward again, this time almost lunging towards Kaneki. They were only four or so feet from each other now.

"You know, Ruby - you're a sweet, innocent girl. You have, as far as I know, never harmed someone. Not like the way I have. I've seen things that make the horrors of this world seem like a joke in comparison. I'm not going to pretend I'm a good or noble person. I'm not. I don't think I've ever been that, even at my best. Everything I've done has been for nothing. All my sacrifices, all my work. All of it destroyed in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, I could do nothing - I was too weak."

Kaneki's smile wavered now even as the rest of face remained stoic.

"I saw my home burned to the ground. I saw my entire world being upturned. Everything that gave my life meaning just ...disappeared. Gone. _Destroyed_." Ruby noticed how much his voice quavered as he finished that last word.

"I don't want pity. I've made my mistakes. I have been made to suffer for them. And I will continue to do so until the day I die. I can only think that my reason for being placed into this world is to suffer for what I did, and I can think of no punishment more fitting than that."

"Now, Ruby," said Kaneki. As he said this, he bowed before her, his face hidden as he finished his speech. "Please, never come near me again. Please, I am bad luck. I am a bad person. Always have, always will. If you want to live a long and good life, please, stay as far away from me as possible. I'm nothing but bad, horrible luck."

Before Ruby could respond, he straightened his back, and turned around. He picked up the bags.

"Good day, Ms. Rose."

Before she could respond, a loud sound ruptured the air, and, before she could realize it's exact location and the originator of the sound (.50 MG from a high powered sniper rifle at over 850 meters minimum), Kaneki lay on the concrete, blood leaking from where his head used to be.


End file.
